tibrar;!P  of  t:he  t:heolo0ical  ^eminar^ 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


•a^^t- 


PRESENTED  BY 

Princeton  University 


BV  4541  .G8  1870 

Guthrie,  Thomas,  1803-1873 

Saving  knowledge 


»;>, 


^^ 


*   •*i^'' 


/^^^    ^Cu^d    ZiV'a^T.  ^ 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE 


Jibbrwseb  to  foong  Pen      /oj^"^  ^^  PR.'/y^>^ 


By  THOS.  GUTHRIE,  d.d.  and  W.  G.  BLAIKlE,  U.D. 


STRAHAN    &    CO.,    PUBLISHERS 

56  LUDGATE  HILL,  LONDON 

1870 


JOHN   CHILDS   AND   SON,    PRINTEKS. 


NOTE. 

Circumstances  having  made  it  necessary  to  divide 
the  authorship  of  the  following  papers,  it  may  be 
right  to  say  that  the  3rd,  4th,  7th,  8th,  and  nth 
are  by  Dr  Guthrie,  and  the  other  chapters  by  Dr 
Blaikie. 


WITHDRAWN 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.   GOD'S  VERDICT  ON   MAN  I 

II.   GOD'S,  SENTENCE  ON    MAN 24 

III.  THE  EVIL  OF   SIN  50^^^^ 

IV.  man's  INABILITY    TO   SAVE  HIMSELF            ..  7$      C^     <> 
V.    GOD'S  GIFT  TO  MAN         lOI 

VL   THE  SAVIOUR'S  PERSON  12$ 

Vn.   THE  WORK   AND   GLORY  OF  THE   SAVIOUR  I47  ^^ 

VIIL   THE  WAY   OF  SALVATION  17I     '"    - 

IX.   THE  SINNER'S   LINK  TO   THE   SAVIOUR- 
FAITH     202 

X.   THE   SPIRIT  OF   LIFE 227 

XL   MADE   HOLY  25$       '    *^ 

XII.   THE  SACRAMENTS  319 


GOD'S  VERDICT  ON  MAN. 

r^  HRISTIANITY  bears,  on  its  very  face,  to  be 
a  grand  scheme  of  restoration.  It  professes  to 
deal  with  a  ruined  being,  and  its  object  is  to  recover 
him  from  ruin.  It  is  not  a  mere  hot-house,  where 
warmth  and  shelter  are  given  to  tender  plants, 
enabling  them  to  thrive  and  become  beautiful, 
when  the  open  air  would  stunt  or  kill  them.  It 
is  not  a  mere  auxiliary  force,  added  to  the  moral 
powers  of  man,  like  a  screw  power  in  a  feeble 
sailing  vessel,  to  enable  him  to  get  on  faster  and 
farther  than  he  otherwise  would.  It  is  not  a 
mere  system  of  decoration,  giving  a  beautiful 
finish  to  a  course  of  improvement  which  educa- 
tion, and  civilization,  and  culture,  have  advanced 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE, 


a  long  way.  It  embraces  all  these  objects  among 
its  subordinate  aims^  but  they  are  not  of  its 
essence^  they  are  not  what  it  claims  to  be.  It  is 
common_,  in  these  times^  to  speak  favourably  of 
Christianity  as  a  most  valuable  hot-house,  a  most 
useful  propeller^  a  charming  decorator.  Such 
compliments  are  often  accompanied  with  sneers 
at  the  idea  of  its  being  much  more^  or  of  man^s 
needing  much  more.  But  any  view  of  Christianity 
must  fall  infinitely  short  of  the  truth,  and  in  prac- 
tice prove  most  pernicious,  that  does  not  take 
account  of  its  main  claim  and  profession — as  sl 
divine  provision  for  the  removal  of  man's  guilt, 
and  for  the  restoration  of  life,  purity,  and  beauty 
to  his  deformed  and  fallen  nature. 

The  very  name  given  to  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity by  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  implied  that  this 
was  its  essential  purpose.  He  was  not  to  bear  a 
name  indicating  a  great  Reformer  merely,  or  a 
great  Teacher,  or  a  great  Priest,  or  a  great  King, 
but  one  combining  all  these  offices,  in  their 
furthest  reach  and  deepest  meaning — ^Thou  shall 


GOD'S  VERDICT  ON  MAN. 


call  his  name  Saviour,  for  he  shall  save  his  people 
from  their  sins/  He  did  not  come  merely  to 
teach,  or  to  civil ize_,  or  to  rule,  or  to  reform,  but 
to  save.  He  refused  to  allow  his  gift  to  man  to 
be  described  by  any  term  short  of  Life,  in  the 
highest  meaning  of  that  word,  or  to  accept  the 
homage  of  those  who  would  not  believe  that 
life  could  be  had  only  through  vital  fellowship 
with  Him.  (John  vi.  30.)  He  welcomed  the 
shouts  of  the  multitude  when  they  called  out 
'  Hosanna/  ascribing  to  Him,  in  that  very  word, 
the  power  to  save.  He  felt  it  no  shame,  as  He 
hung  on  the  cross,  to  have  the  word  ^  Jesus  ^  in- 
scribed over  His  head.  Indeed  it  was  to  place 
His  claim  to  that  name  on  an  unchallengeable 
basis,  that  He  bore  the  cross  and  its  cursed  death. 
And,  after  His  ascension.  His  apostles  showed 
how  truly  they  apprehended  the  grand  purpose  of 
His  incarnation  and  death  by  their  use  of  the 
word  salvation.  It  became  a  consecrated  word. 
'Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other;  for 
there  is  no  other  name  given  under  heaven  among 


SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 


men  whereby  we  must  be  saved/  All  other 
applications  of  the  w^ord  are  dwarfed  and  over- 
shadowed by  the  meaning  it  bears  in  connection 
with  Christ.  No  doubt^  in  a  sense^  a  man  rescued 
from  shipwreck_,  is  saved.  A  child  snatched  from 
off  the  rails  just  as  an  express  train  is  dashing 
along,  is  saved.  A  bedrid  paralytic  rescued  from 
a  burning  house,  is  saved.  A  young  man  dragged 
from  the  meshes  of  intemperance_,  is  saved.  But 
in  every  one  of  these  instances,  who  does  not  feel 
that  it  is  but  a  mere  fraction  of  the  force  of  the 
great  word  that  is  put  forth ;  and  that  its  measure- 
less compass  of  meaning  is  conveyed  only  when 
it  is  said  of  the  sinner,  pardoned,  purified,  and 
blessed  by  Jesus  Christ,  that  once  lost,  now  he  is 
SAVED  ? 

There  are  strange  stories  of  little  children 
stolen  in  infancy  by  gipsies  from  the  happy  homes 
of  their  parents,  retaining  in  after  years  a  vague 
impression  of  the  condition  from  which  they 
were  torn.  No  recollection  was  distinct  enough 
to  be  shaped  into  definite  form ;  but  a  misty  no- 


GOnS  VERDICT  ON  MAN.  5 

tion  of  a  happier  time  floated  like  a  thin  vapour 
through  their  brain.  A  similar  impression  of  an 
unfallen  state  seems  to  have  retained  its  hold  on 
the  human  race.  There  is  an  instinctive  feeling 
in  us  that  we  are  not  what  once  we  were ;  that 
the  early  days  of  our  race  were  happier  and 
brighter^  that  the  golden  age  of  innocence  and 
bliss  has  degenerated_,  till  at  last  our  lot  has  fallen 
upon  the  age  of  iron.  Alongside  of  this  feeling 
lies  our  instinctive  hope  of  better  days  to  come, 
the  longing  for  a  paradise  regained^  out  of  which 
poetry  is  constantly  forming  so  many  pictures  of 
peace  and  beauty.  Such  fancies  are  vague_,  and 
they  are  apt  to  deceive.  They  may  nourish  the 
feeling  that  this  fall  is  a  pure  misfortune,  a  sad  evil 
for  which  no  one  of  us  is  more  responsible  than 
the  babe  unborn.  At  all  events,  we  need  a  more 
sure  word  of  prophecy.  What  is  this  fallen  state 
in  which  we  are?  How  came  we  to  be  in  it? 
What  are  its  bearings  and  consequences  ?  And 
how  may  we  escape  from  it  ?  The  word  of 
God  professes  to  be  given  for  the  very  purpose  of 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


answering  these  questions ;  if  it  be  so_,  the  more 
closely  we  keep  to  its  guidance,  the  more  ac- 
curately shall  we  be  informed,,  both  of  the  nature 
of  our  ruin,  and  of  the  mode  of  recovery  which 
has  been  provided  by  Christ. 

Hardly  have  we  opened  the  Bible,  and  begun 
our  inquiry,  when  our  attention  is  arrested  by  the 
perpetual  occurrence  of  the  words  ^  sin  ^  and  ^  sin- 
ner/ They  swarm  in  every  page.  And  along- 
side of  them  we  find  hosts  of  synonymous 
words — transgression,  trespass,  iniquity,  unright- 
eousness, ungodliness,  rebellion,  uncleanness,  cor- 
ruption, guilt.  And  what  is  strange,  there  is  not 
a  great  deal  in  the  Bible  about  misfortune  or 
calamity.  The  leading  impression  conveyed  is 
not,  that  through  some  cause  over  which  he  had 
no  control,  man  has  come  to  be  what  he  now  is. 
He  is  not  represented  as  the  innocent  victim  of 
misfortune.  His  case  is  a  far  more  serious  one  in 
the  eyes  of  his  God.  He  is  a  criminal.  That, 
undoubtedly,  is  the  outstanding  consideration  by 
which  the  Bible  accounts  for  the  state  of  man. 


GOUS  VERDICT  ON  MAN. 


It  is  this  that  gives  such  an  aspect  of  gloom  to 
his  whole  history^  as  traced  in  the  Bible.  It  is 
this^  too_,  that  makes  the  problem  of  his  re- 
demption so  difficult.  If  man's  condition  were 
the  result  mainly  of  misfortune^  or  of  weakness^ 
or  of  imperfection,  or  of  exposure  to  fierce  and 
noxious  influences,  there  could  be  no  great  dif- 
ficulty in  remedying  it.  It  is  because  he  is  a 
SINNER  that  the  case  is  so  serious  and  the  dif- 
ficulty so  great.  And  it  is  because  Jesus  Christ 
has  surmounted  this  difficulty,  and  has  made 
complete  provision  for  every  feature  and  aspect  of 
man's  sinful  state,  that  his  salvation  is  so  glorious, 
and  the  security  of  all  who  are  united  to  him  so 
unchallengeably  complete. 

The  charge  of  the  Bible  against  man  as  a 
sinner  is  made  in  many  different  forms.  Thus, 
in  the  first  place,  there  are  passages  not  a  few 
in  which  the  whole  race,  without  exception,  is 
brought  in  ^guilty'  before  God.  ^ There  is  none 
righteous,  no  not  one.'  'The  imagination  of 
man's  heart  is  evil  from  his  vouth.'     'God  made 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


man  upright,  but  they  have  sought  out  many 
inventions/  '  If  thou^  Lord,  shouklest  mark 
iniquities,  O  Lord,  who  shall  stand?'  ^All  have 
sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God/ 
^  If  v^e  say  that  we  are  without  sin,  we  deceive 
ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us/  ^  In  many 
things,  we  offend  all/  Nothing  can  be  wider  or 
more  unrestricted  than  such  statements  as  these. 
And  lest  any  doubt  should  remain  as  to  their 
bearing,  some  of  them  are  deliberately  brought 
together  in  the  third  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  and  the  very  purpose  and  end  of  them 
is  solemnly  declared  to  be  to  establish  a  verdict 
of  guilty  against  the  whole  race  of  man,  ^that 
every  mouth  may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world 
become  guilty  before  God/ 

Not  less  emphatic  is  the  testimony  of  Scrip- 
ture to  the  continued  depravity  of  individuals  and 
of  communities  that  have  enjoyed  very  special 
advantages,  and  have  had  all  the  resources  of 
Divine  care  and  nurture  lavished  upon  them.  A 
tree  bearing  bitter  fruit  in  a  wild  and  uncultivated 


GOnS  VERDICT  ON  MAN. 


desert,  is  very  likely  a  bad  tree_,  but  if  it  bear  the 
game  bitter  fruit  in  a  garden,,  with  all  the  ad- 
vantages of  climate^  soil^  and  cultivation^  the 
proof  of  its  badness  is  more  decisive  and  com- 
plete. If  we  compare  the  barbarian  and  the 
Scythian  to  the  tree  in  the  desert^  the  seed  of 
Abraham  will  correspond  to  the  tree  in  the  shel- 
tered and  cultivated  garden.  To  them  every 
conceivable  advantage  and  encouragement  was 
given^  and  the  great  vine-dressser  could  appeal 
to  themselves  in  proof  of  His  exhaustive  attention. 
'What  could  have  been  done  more  to  my  vine- 
yard that  I  have  not  done  in  it?  Wherefore^ 
when  I  looked  that  it  should  bring  forth  grapes, 
brought  it  forth  wild  grapes?' 

Equally  clear,  and  in  some  respects  even  more 
impressive,  are  the  countless  passages  in  which 
the  holiest  of  men  are  found  to  deplore  their  de- 
pravity, confessing  that  in  their  flesh,  or  natural 
state,  dwelt  no  good  thing,  and  that  it  was  by 
the  grace  of  God  alone  they  were  what  they  were. 
Such  confessions  derive  singular  depth  and  earn- 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


estness  from  the  fact  that  the  spiritual  vision  of 
God  vouchsafed  to  these  men  exalted  immeasure- 
ably  their  ideas  of  purity  on  the  one  hand,  and 
deepened  their  horror  of  sin  on  the  other.  Job, 
perfect  and  upright  though  he  was,  according  to 
the  common  standard  of  men,  no  sooner  comes 
into  the  Divine  presence  than  he  sees  himself 
covered  with  impurity  :  '  I  have  heard  of  thee  by 
the  hearing  of  the  ear,  but  now  mine  eye  seeth 
thee ;  wherefore  I  abhor  myself,  and  repent  in 
dust  and  ashes/  In  that  dread  presence  where 
the  voices  of  seraphim  cry  ^  Holy,  holy,  holy ! ' 
Isaiah  is  overwhelmed  with  the  sense  of  his  un- 
cleanness  :  'Woe  is  me,^  he  cries,  ''for  I  am  un- 
done! for  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I 
dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips; 
for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of 
hosts/  King  David,  after  his  terrible  declension, 
is  horror-stricken  when  he  enters  the  presence  of 
God  :  his  sin  glares  on  him  like  a  fiend,  and  he 
can  see  nothing  in  himself  but  wickedness  :  ^  Be- 
hold, I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my 


GOnS  VERDICT  ON  MAN.  i  r 

mother  conceive  me.'  St  Paul_,  when  he  looks 
into  the  perfect  law  of  God^  not  only  perceives  a 
sad  contrast  between  what  he  is  and  what  he 
should  be,  but  finds  a  horrible  law  of  corrup- 
tion roused  by  the  very  contact  into  such  over- 
whelming activity  as  to  extort  the  cry,  ^  O 
wretched  man  that  I  am !  who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death?'  And  there  is  no 
part  of  the  experience  of  Bible  saints  which  honest 
believers,  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  have  felt  more 
true  of  themselves.  Whatever  differences  there 
may  be  in  the  experience  of  good  men,  all  agree 
in  this,  that  sin  is  engrained,  so  to  speak,  in  the 
very  substance  of  their  nature — that  an  awful 
attraction,  as  strong  as  the  gravitation  of  the 
earth,  drags  them  to  evil,  and  that  even  their 
life-long  struggles  against  sin  leave  them  in  so  un- 
satisfactory a  state,  that  their  only  hope  of  final 
acceptance  lies  in  the  merit  of  the  Saviour,  and 
their  only  prospect  of  becoming  meet  for  heaven 
in  the  promised  and  all-sufficient  grace  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


Such  passages  and  such  testimonies  furnish 
the  clearest  proof  that  in  the  sight  of  God  all 
men  are  sinners.  Let  us  now  try  to  analyze  this 
depravity  somewhat — to  resolve  it  into  some  of 
its  constituent  elements,  and  bring  it  home,  as  a 
sad  reality,  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  all. 
The  two  great  centres  of  the  alleged  depravity  of 
man  are  ungodliness  and  selfishness — the 
one  having  reference  to  his  relation  to  God, 
the  other  mainly  to  his  relation  to  his  fellow- 
men. 

I.  Ungodliness.  The  great  charge  of  the 
Bible  against  man  is  that  he  is  regardless  of  God. 
In  his  heart  he  fails  in  every  feeling,  and  in  his 
life  he  comes  short  of  every  service,  which  is  due 
by  him  to  such  a  Being.  Consider,  for  example, 
how  sadly  he  fails  in  the  inward  esteem  or  re- 
verence which  he  owes  to  God.  God  is  the  per- 
fection of  beauty  and  excellence;  every  quality 
worthy  of  our  regard  exists  in  Him  in  infinite 
fulness.  All  other  beauty  and  all  other  excel- 
lence are  but  feeble  sparks  from  the  great  source 


GOD'S  VERDICT  ON  MAN.  13 

of  beauty  and  excellence.  The  wisdom  of  a 
Newton_,  the  benevolence  of  a  Howard^  the  ten- 
derness of  a  Ruth,  the  generosity  of  a  Joseph^  the 
friendship  of  a  Jonathan^  are  but  stray  and  feeble 
rays  from  the  One  great  Sun — the  all-glorious 
and  unchangeable  God.  Yet,  how  dead  are  all 
men^s  hearts  to  this  beauty  and  excellence !  When 
I  look  at  a  rainbow,  or  a  lovely  sunset,  the  sense 
of  beauty  fills  my  mind ;  when,  stricken  with 
conscious  meanness,  I  experience  the  generosity 
of  a  friend  ;  or  when  I  follow  a  self-denying  phi- 
lanthropist through  scenes  of  sickening  vice  and 
misery,  and  witness  his  untiring  love ;  or  when  I 
read  of  noble-hearted  men  and  women  risking  their 
lives  to  rescue  shipwrecked  seamen,  my  heart 
swells,  my  bosom  heaves :  but  when  I  think  of 
God,  I  am  dull,  languid,  lifeless ;  I  dismiss  the 
thought  as  ungenial ;  it  has  no  sunshine  for  my 
heart.  Consider  God  in  any  of  the  relations  in 
which  He  stands  to  us,  and  how  miserably  de- 
fective are  our  feelings  !  Our  Creator  and  Pre- 
server, how  well  is  He  entitled  to  our  reverence 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


and  gratitude — yet  how  independently  we  carry 
ourselves  towards  Him  !  Our  Owner  and  Master, 
what  a  claim  He  has  to  our  service — yet  how  dis- 
posed are  we  ever  to  say,  ^  Our  lips  are  our  own, 
who  is  Lord  over  us?'  Our  King,  our  Lawgiver, 
and  our  Judge,  on  whose  will  and  pleasure  our 
everlasting  destinies  hang, — how  little  we  think 
of  pleasing  Him !  Our  God  and  Father,  who 
longs  for  our  affections,  who  throws  all  divine 
earnestness  into  the  request,  '  My  son,  give  me 
thy  heart,^  and  whom  one  genuine  look  of  love 
from  us  would  gladden  infinitely  more  than  the 
first  smiles  of  her  gentle  infant  gladden  the  doting 
mother, — how  coldly  and  heedlessly  we  leave  Him 
to  say,  '  If  I  be  a  Father,  where  is  mine  honour  ? 
and  if  I  be  a  Master,  where  is  my  fear?'  How 
strange  and  sad  it  is  to  find  God  contrasting  the 
mindfulness  of  the  very  beasts  with  the  reffard- 
lessness  of  man  !  Pointing  to  the  ox  that  knows 
his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master^s  crib, — point- 
ing to  the  stork  of  heaven  that  knows  his  ap- 
pointed time,  and  the  turtle  and  the  crane  and 


GOD'S  VERDICT  ON  MAN.  15 

swallow,  that  observe  the  time  of  their  coming, 
and  deploring,  in  contrast  to  these,  that  ^  Israel 
doth  not  know,  my  people  doth  not  consider!' 
Contrasting  the  fidelity  of  the  sons  of  Jonadab, 
who  would  have  died  rather  than  forget  their 
father's  charge,  with  the  heedlessness  of  those 
whom  he  had  nourished  and  brought  up  as  chil- 
dren !  Contrasting  the  attachment  of  the  very 
heathen  to  their  idol-gods,  and  the  constancy 
with  which  they  continued  to  honour  them,  with 
the  changing  fickleness  of  the  professed  children 
of  Jehovah ! 

How  strange,  too,  that  it  should  be  so  diffi- 
cult to  convince  men  of  this  great  habit  of  sin  ! 
That  they  should  so  seldom  think  that  anything 
is  seriously  wrong,  when  the  heart  is  thus  dead  to 
God,  and  that  they  should  be  so  little  shocked, 
either  at  themselves  or  at  the  world  at  large, 
though  virtually  they  are  trying  to  dethrone  God, 
and  govern  things  not  after  His  fashion,  but 
their  own !  It  is  not  necessary  to  prove  men 
murderers,  or  adulterers,  or  blasphemers,  or  revel- 


i6  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

lers^  to  bring  them  in  guilty  before  God.  It  is 
enough  that  their  lives  have  been  spent  in  re- 
gardlessness  of  Him,  as  if  no  such  Being  lived,  or 
as  if  He  had  nothing  to  do  with  them,  or  they 
with  Him.  The  sense  of  unworthiness  that  comes 
over  one  when  he  awakes  to  a  sense  of  the  virtual 
atheism  of  his  past  life,  is  in  no  sensible  degree 
impaired  by  the  consideration  that  outwardly  his 
life  may  have  been  blameless,  and  that  his  rela- 
tions to  his  fellow-men  may  have  been  amiable 
and  kind.  It  is  the  discovery  of  his  godlessness 
that  distresses  him;  the  thought  that  all  his  life 
long  he  has  been  neglecting  the  God  in  whom  he 
lives  and  moves  and  has  his  being ;  that  in  place 
of  the  regard  due  to  his  Creator,  the  submission 
due  to  his  Sovereign,  the  reverence  due  to  his 
God,  the  affection  due  to  his  Father,  and  the 
gratitude,  confidence,  and  devotion  due  to  his 
Redeemer,  his  heart  has  presented  an  absolute 
blank — an  utter  void  of  every  living  sentiment 
suitable  to  his  relation  to  the  Most  High !  How 
can  it  be  supposed  that  he  has  fulfilled  the  great 


GOnS  VERDICT  ON  MAN.  17 

ends  of  his  being,  when  absokite  death  has 
reigned  in  the  region  that  should  have  been  ahve 
with  the  warnfiest  feeHngs  and  the  most  spon- 
taneous activities  ?  A  soul  dead  to  God,  how  is 
it  conceivable  that  God  should  be  pleased  with 
such  a  phenomenon  ?  So  far  from  being  aston- 
ished that  he  should  be  declared  guilty  before 
God,  the  wonder  is  that  God  should  not  long  ago 
have  put  an  end  to  a  life  so  unprofitable.  He 
feels  himself  so  utterly  unworthy,  that  Divine 
grace  alone  can  effect  his  salvation ;  and  while  he 
lives  on  earth,  he  can  never  cease  to  mourn  the 
godless  tendencies  that  still  remain  in  him,  nor 
to  feel  the  necessity  of  resorting  to  the  throne  of 
grace,  that  he  may  obtain  mercy,  and  find  grace 
to  help  in  time  of  need. 

2.  Selfishness  is  the  other  great  centre  of 
human  depravity.  It  is  not  necessary  to  prove 
that  selfishness  in  its  highest  degree  reigns  in 
every  human  heart,  for  undoubtedly  there  are 
some  on  whom  this  taint  has  fallen  much  less 
heavily   than  the  taint  of  godlessness.     Yet  the 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


very  fact  that  selfishness  in  the  vilest  forms  swarms 
on  every  side,  even  in  the  bosom  of  a  community 
professedly  Christian_,  may  surely  convince  us  that 
the  deadly  virus  has  got  an  alarming  hold  on  the 
whole  family  of  man.  A  large  class  among  us 
musters  undisguisedly  under  the  motto,  'Every 
man  for  himself;  ^  and  among  the  membei^s  of 
the  fraternity  there  is  no  want  of  loyalty  to  their 
banner.  See  how  eagerly  many  clutch  at  the 
highest  gains  they  can  procure,  utterly  regardless 
of  the  interests  of  others ;  how  the  trader  will 
push  his  opium  or  his  ardent  spirits  among  com- 
munities which  they  are  sure  to  enslave  or  debase ; 
how  the  slave-dealer  will  depopulate  the  fairest 
regions  of  the  globe,  and  not  scruple  to  burn  and 
pillage,  to  mutilate  and  murder  on  every  side,  in 
order  to  make  up  the  gang  which  he  has  under-* 
taken  to  provide ;  how  the  sensualist  will  lure  his 
victim  to  his  haunts,  in  spite  of  the  broken  hearts 
of  parents,  and  the  infallible  ruin  that  awaits  her- 
self; how  the  whole  business  of  parliaments,  and 
courts  of  justice,  and  police  institutions  is  mainly 


GOD'S  VERDICT  ON  MAN.  19 

to  create  checks  and  safeguards  against  human 
selfishness^  and  to  secure  that  if  men  will  not  live 
in  brotherly  love  they  shall  at  least  pay  some 
regard  to  the  rights  of  neighbours  and  brethren 
weaker  than  themselves.  Can  it  be  that  a  mortal 
disease,  which  on  the  very  face  of  society  is  seen 
to  be  so  widely  spread,  has  passed  over  any  mem- 
ber of  the  family  without  leaving  behind  even  one 
trace  of  its  presence  ? 

But  let  us  not  think  of  selfishness  merely  in  its 
vilest  forms.  Our  Lord  himself  has  furnished  us 
with  a  test  which  enables  us  to  detect  it  in  forms 
as  subtle  as  any  in  which  the  chemist  detects  the 
presence  of  poison.  It  is  the  golden  rule,  ^  What- 
soever ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do 
ye  also  unto  them ; '  or,  what  is  in  substance  the 
same,  '  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.' 
Whoever  fails  to  do  this  is  selfish.  To  the  extent 
to  which  he  fails,  he  is  selfish.  What  character, 
however  amiable,  could  stand  the  test?  Where 
is  the  man  who  has  always  been  as  concerned  for 
his  neighbour's  comfort  as  for  his  own ;  who  has 


20  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

always  paid  as  much  regard  to  his  neighbour's 
feehngs  as  his  own;  who  has  never  sought  to 
benefit  himself  or  exalt  himself  at  the  expense  of 
others ;  who  has  never  grudged  trouble  in  doing 
that  for  another  which  he  would  have  done  for 
himself;  who  even  in  his  inmost  heart  has  never 
felt  a  touch  of  envy  when  another  was  prospering 
beyond  him_,  or  a  thrill  of  satisfaction  when  one 
who  had  been  an  enemy  and  opponent  began  to 
feel  the  grip  of  adversity  !  The  truth  is  that  the 
more  unselfish  men  are^  the  more  sensitive  are 
their  consciences^  and  the  more  ready  are  they  to 
condemn  themselves  for  breaches  of  the  law  of 
charity  unperceived  and  unsuspected  by  coarser 
and  rougher  minds.  Looking  to  so  much  higher 
a  standard  than  the  mass  of  men,  they  are  the 
more  ready  to  feel  and  confess  their  shortcom- 
ings; and  the  very  compliments  that  often  flow 
on  them  so  copiously  from  their  fellows,  by  re- 
calling the  host  of  heart-sins  which  no  eye  per- 
ceives   but   their   own,    only   lead    to    a    deeper 


GOUS  VERDICT  ON  MAN. 


humiliation  and  a  more  absolute   sense  of  un- 
worthiness  in  the  sight  of  God. 

Yes^  there  is  a  seed  of  selfishness^  more  or  less 
developed^  in  all  men.     But  undoubtedly  it  is  the 
godlessness  of  the  natural  heart  that  furnishes  the 
main  article  of  the  indictment  in  which  all  men 
are  declared  guilty  before  God.     The  root  of  the 
evil  is_,  the  secret  aversion  of  man  to  the  Living 
God,  his  inward  recoil  from  the  Holy  One,  and 
the  deadness  of  his  heart  in  respect  of  those  emo- 
tions that  ought  to  flow  out  from  it  to  God  in 
clouds  of  fragrance.     Dead  to  God  !     Who  can 
fathom  the  depths  of  the  unworthiness  which  that 
state  of  things  implies  ?    A  heart  dead  to  a  loving 
parent,  dead  to  a  generous  friend,  dead  to  a  de- 
voted spouse,  stands  at  a  fearfully  low  point  in  the 
scale  of  depravity ;  but  what  can  be  thought  of  a 
heart  dead  to  God  !     And  as  the  guilt  is  great,  so 
is  the  resulting  evil.      More  than  the  creeping 
plant  depends  on  the  stake  or  trellis,  more  than 
the  feeble  infant  depends  on  its  mother — man  is 


22  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

formed  to  depend  on  God.  God  is  the  fountain 
of  his  beings  the  only  source  in  him  of  order, 
beauty^  life,  and  progress.  Without  God  every- 
thing falls  into  confusion.  Noisome  lusts  come 
creeping  as  from  their  dens,  and  leave  their  slime 
on  the  fairest  features  of  the  soul.  The  reins  are 
torn  by  appetite  and  passion  from  the  hands  of 
conscience  and  reason;  the  texture  of  the  soul  is 
unknit ;  and  there  is  no  force  in  it  to  subdue  the 
rebellion.  Souls  that  have  been  restored  through 
God's  grace  in  Christ  have  no  stronger  conviction 
than  that  all  their  springs  are  in  God,  and  that  if 
the  blessed  connection  that  has  been  formed  be- 
tween them  were  for  one  moment  to  be  severed, 
that  moment  they  would  wither  and  rot  like  a 
fallen  leaf.  It  is  this  sense  of  dependence,  abso- 
lute, constant,  and  entire,  that  gives  such  pathos 
to  some  of  our  hymns,  expressive  of  the  breathings 
of  the  earnest  heart : — 

*  Other  refuge  have  I  none, 

Hangs  my  helpless  soul  on  Thee  j 
Leave,  ah,  leave  me  not  alone, 
Still  support  and  comfort  me. 


GOD'S  VERDICT  ON  MAN.  23 

All  my  trust  in  Thee  is  stayed, 
All  my  help  from  Thee  I  bring  ; 

Cover  my  defenceless  head 

With  the  shadow  of  Thy  wing.' 

Who  of  us  have  got  this  blessed  fellowship  ? 
Have  you  awoke  from  the  dark  dream  of  your 
self-confident  heart  that  you  could  do  well  enough 
without  God  ?  Have  you  come  to  see  that  God 
is  indispensable  to  your  very  being?  Have  you 
been  made  to  shiver  in  looking  back  on  the  past, 
at  the  thought  of  a  life  spent  without  God  ;  and 
still  more  in  looking  forward  to  the  future,  at  the 
prospect  of  an  endless  existence  divorced  from  His 
presence  and  darkened  by  His  frown  ?  Have  you 
fled  for  refuge  to  take  hold  of  the  hope  set  before 
you  ?  and  have  you  found  at  the  cross  of  Jesus 
the  blessedness  of  Divine  acceptance  and  fellow- 
ship, and  learned  to  know  the  joy^  and  to  sing  the 
hymn,  of  the  reconciled  and  comforted — ^  O  Lord, 
I  will  praise  thee;  though  thou  wast  angry  with 
me,  thine  anger  is  turned  away,  and  thou  com- 
forted st  me/ 


II. 

GOD'S  SENTENCE  ON  MAN. 

T  T  is  a  miserable  interval  that  elapses^  in  a 
great  and  exciting  trial,  between  the  verdict  of 
the  jury  and  the  sentence  of  the  judge.  Miser- 
able to  the  spectators,  miserable  to  the  judge, 
and  supremely  miserable  to  the  criminal.  The 
last  ray  of  hope  is  extinguished  in  the  prisoner's 
horizon.  The  blackness  of  darkness  seems  to 
reign.  There  is  nothing  for  him  but  to  bow  the 
soul  in  blank  despair  to  the  stroke  which  is  to 
crush  it  in  the  dust,  apparently  for  ever. 

It  shows  the  sad  apathy  of  men  in  spiritual 
things,  that  while  human  verdicts  and  human 
sentences  are  received  with  such  emotion,  men 
are  naturally  so  little  concerned  either  as  to  the 
Divine  verdict  on    their  conduct,  or  the  Divine 


GOUS  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  25 

sentence  on  their  guilt."  No  doubt^  as  things 
usually  go  on  in  the  world,  we  want  the 
excitement  and  concentrated  attention  of  a 
trial.  There  is  nothing  to  rivet  the  eye  or 
overpower  the  senses_,  or  to  constrain  men 
to  feel  that  their  eternal  destinies  are  trem- 
blino^  in  the  balance.  The  forbearance  of  the 
judge  often  hardens  the  heart_,  and  *^  because 
sentence  against  an  evil  work  is  not  executed 
speedily_,  the  hearts  of  the  children  of  men  are 
fully  set  in  them  to  do  evil.^  But  is  it  not 
strange  that  men  can  read  in  the  Word  of  God, 
that  they  are  all  guilty  in  his  sight,  and  receive 
the  tidings  with  so  little  emotion  ?  Nay,  more, 
that  they  can  fcike  the  announcement  very  much 
as  a  matter  of  course,  the  consequences  of  which 
need  in  no  way  trouble  them  ?  And  that  instead 
of  earnestly  inquiring,  what  is  the  sentence 
attached  by  their  judge  to  the  guilt  which  has 
been  proved  against  them,  and  whether  there  is 
a  possibility  of  that  sentence  being  repealed,  they 
eat  and  drink,  and  joke  and  play,  in  utter  regard- 


26  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

lessness^  as  men  did  the''  day  when  Noah  entered 
the  ark,  and  as  they  shall  still  be  doing  when  the 
sign  of  the  Son  of  man  appears  in  heaven  ? 

We  have  seen  God's  verdict  on  man — all  the 
world  become  guilty  before  God.  We  have 
examined  some  of  the  grounds  of  the  verdict, 
and  have  found  that  no  human  being  can  escape 
the  charge  of  ungodliness  and  selfishness.  It  is 
plain  that  no  man  born  of  woman  is  just  before 
God.  We  are  all  transgressors  of  a  law  that  is 
holy  and  just  and  good.  What  is  the  con- 
sequence? Is  our  transgression  simply  a  thing 
to  be  regretted,  regretted  in  heaven  and  regretted 
on  earth,  but  merely  regretted  ?  Is  it  to  be 
regarded  simply  as  an  untoward  event,  lessening 
our  happiness,  and  hindering  our  progress,  no 
doubt,  but  not  leading  to  more  serious  evil  ?  Is 
it  like  a  break-down  in  a  journey,  or  an  accident 
at  sea,  a  distressing  occurrence  in  itself,  but  of 
which  we  must  just  try  to  make  the  best,  and  go 
crippling  on,  as  best  we  may?  Such  is  un- 
doubtedly the  feeling  and  the  philosophy  of  many 


GODS  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  27 

in  our  day.  Human  nature,  unfortunately/ has 
got  crippled  somehow.  The  machinery  has  got 
out  of  gear,  and  is  not  working  very  comfortably 
or  very  efficiently.  Well,  it  is  no  doubt  a  pity. 
But  just  let  us  be  patient.  Let  us  try  to  make 
the  best  of  it.  Let  us  calmly  examine  what  is 
wrong,  and  endeavour  to  adjust  it,  as  you  would 
disentangle  a  hank  of  ravelled  worsted.  All  will 
come  right  by-and-by.  But  don^t  let  us  be 
frightened  by  the  thought  of  punishment,  or 
anything  of  that  kind.  Don^t  let  us  get  dis- 
heartened with  depressing  views  of  our  unworthi- 
ness.  God  is  merciful  and  full  of  compassion. 
Siiiely  we  may  expect  He  will  be  ready  to  help 
us  in  repairing  this  catastrophe,  and  not  fall  on 
us,  like  an  angry  tyrant,  terrifying  us  with  venge- 
ance, and  driving  us  to  despair. 

This  is  an  easy  view  of  the  situation,  and 
recommends  itself  to  many  a  mind.  But  even 
before  we  go  to  the  Word  of  God  to  compare  it 
with  its  testimony,  let  us  see  whether  there  be 
not  a  voice  in  our  bosoms  that  utters  a  different 


28  SA  VING  KNO WLEDGE. 

sound.  Are  there  no  remains  in  us  of  a  con- 
science that  testifies  that  when  wrong  has  been 
done_,  punishment  is  due  ?  If  I  rob_,  or  steal,  or 
He_,  or  cheat_,  am  I  able  to  comfort  myself  with 
the  thought  that  it  is  a  mere  derangement  of  my 
moral  machinery,  and  that  it  would  be  both 
foolish  and  wrong  to  dream  of  punishment  ?  Or 
if  my  self-love  flatters  me  that  in  my  own  case 
this  is  the  right  view  of  the  matter,  is  my  judg- 
ment the  same  when  the  guilty  party  is  another  ? 
When  Nathan  comes  to  me  with  a  story  of 
shameful  wrong, — of  a  rich  man  that,  when  a 
stranger  came  to  him,  forbore  to  take  of  his  own 
flocks  wherewith  to  entertain  him,  but  seized  the 
poor  man's  ewe  lamb  that  had  grown  up  together 
with  him  and  his  children,  that  did  eat  of  his 
own  meat,  and  drank  of  his  own  cup,  and  lay  in 
his  bosom,  and  was  unto  him  as  a  daughter, — is 
there  no  indignant  voice  that  sounds  out  from 
my  breast,  '  The  man  that  hath  done  this  thing 
shall  surely  die  ? '  And  if  the  prophetic  story 
has  been  but  a  disguise,  designed  to  secure  my 


GOUS  SENTENCE  ON  MAN. 


verdict  before  I  recognize  the  criminal,  how  ab- 
solutely condemned  and  silenced  I  must  lie  when 
he  looks  me  in  the  face,  and  says  to  me,  '  Thou 
art  the  man  ! ' 

'  If  our  own  hearts  condemn  us,  God  is 
greater  than  our  hearts,  and  knoweth  all  things/ 
When  we  open  our  Bibles,  and  inquire  what  is 
taught  there  as  to  the  sentence  and  fruit  of  sin, 
we  find  nothing  to  allay  the  terrors  of  conscience, 
but  the  case  much  worse  than  we  had  even 
supposed. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  we  find  passages  almost 
without  number  that  declare  death  to  be  the 
punishment  of  sin.  '  In  the  day  thou  eatest 
thereof,  thou  shalt  surely  die.'  'The  soul  that 
sinneth,  it  shall  die.'  '  The  wages  of  sin  is  death.' 
^By  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and 
death  by  sin.'  If  we  ask  what  this  death  means, 
we  find  abundant  evidence  that  it  is  a  condition 
of  most  grievous  pain  and  suffering.  '  The  smoke 
of  their  torment  ascendeth  up  for  ever  and  ever.' 
It    is,   moreover,   a   state  of   abandonment, — of 


30  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

separation  from  all  gracious,  blessed  influences, — 
banishment  from  the  Lord,  consignment  to  the 
place  where  He  hath  forgotten  to  be  gracious. 
Hence  it  is  also  a  state  of  moral  dissolution  and 
spiritual  death ;  unholy  feelings  have  the  mastery 
of  the  soul ;  unable  to  recover  itself,  unable  to 
restore  the  dominion  of  love  and  purity,  it  is  like 
the  troubled  sea  when  it  cannot  rest,  whose 
waters  cast  up  mire  and  dirt.  Its  element  is  the 
outer  darkness,  where  there  is  weeping,  and  wail- 
ing, and  gnashing  of  teeth. 

2.  There  is  no  part  of  the  Bible  where  this  is 
more  frequently  taught,  or  rather  assumed  as  the 
doom  of  sin,  than  that  which  contains  our  Lord's 
own  discourses — the  four  Gospels.  Underneath 
the  whole  course  of  our  Lord's  teaching,  there 
lay  the  awful  truth  that  man  is  lost  and  ruined, 
and  that  it  needs  but  a  touch,  as  it  were,  to  pre- 
cipitate the  catastrophe,  and  plunge  him  into  the 
abyss.  The  herald  of  Christ^s  kingdom  made 
men  familiar  with  ^  the  wrath  to  come,'  and  an- 
nounced the  coming  of  One  who  would  *^  gather 


GOD'S  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  31 

the  wheat  into  his  garner_,  and  burn  up  the  chaff 
with  unquenchable  fire/  And  though  the  ser- 
mon on  the  mount  begins  with  a  garland  of 
blessings,  it  makes  it  plain  that  these  are  only  for 
the  redeemed  children  of  the  kingdom,  and  that 
mankind  at  large  are  separated  by  but  a  thin 
crust,  as  it  were,  from  horrible  ruin.  How  often, 
in  that  sermon,  does  Jesus  withdraw  the  veil,  and 
give  us  a  glimpse  of  the  world  of  woe  !  As  when 
He  warns  us  that  it  is  better  for  us  that  one  of 
our  members  should  perish,  than  that  our  whole 
body  should  be  cast  into  hell.  As  when  He 
cautions  us  against  the  spirit  of  anger,  and 
startles  us  by  saying  that  to  call  a  brother  ^Thou 
fool,^  is  to  make  ourselves  in  danger  of  hell-fire. 
As  when  He  points  to  the  doom  of  the  hypocrites 
'  in  that  day,^  for  whom  no  place  can  be  found  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  whose  sentence  is, 
'Depart  from  me,  ve  that  work  iniquity.'  The 
very  sermon  that  opens  with  words  of  blessing 
closes  with  the  sound  of  destruction, — the  ruin 
of  the  house  built  on  the  sand ;  as  if  the  Lord 


32  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

could  not  dismiss  the  feeling  that,  spite  of  all  He 
came  to  offer  to  men,  and  spite  of  all  His  earnest- 
ness in  offering  it,  destruction  was  the  doom  to 
which  multitudes  of  them  would  finally  come. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  all  Christ's  minis- 
try. He  speaks  and  teaches  all  through  like  one 
solemnized  and  saddened  by  the  awful  fact  of 
man's  ruin  through  sin.  He  is  moved  with  com- 
passion as  He  sees  the  multitude  walking  on  the 
broad  road  and  going  to  destruction, — all  but  the 
few  who  have  been  persuaded  to  enter  in  at  the 
strait  gate.  Now  He  warns  us  not  to  fear  them 
that  kill  the  body,  but  rather  to  fear  Him  who 
can  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in  hell.  Now 
He  tells  us  of  the  rich  man  that  lifted  up  his  eyes 
in  hell  being  in  torment.  Now  of  the  foolish 
virgins  that  had  no  oil  in  their  lamps,  and  found 
the  door  shut  when  they  would  have  joined  the 
bridegroom.  Now  of  the  guest  that  came  to  the 
feast  without  the  wedding  garment,  and  was  cast 
into  outer  darkness,  amid  weeping  and  gnashing 
of  teeth.      Now  of  the  dread  assize,  when  the 


cons  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  33 

Son  of  man  appears  in  His  glory,  and  sets  the 

sheep  on  His  right  hand  and  the  goats  on  His 

left.     Now  He  warns   Capernaum,  that  exalted 

though  she  had  been  to  heaven,  she  would  be 

brought    down    to    hell.      Anon    Chorazin    and 

Bethsaida  are  reproached  with  their  unbelief,  and 

told  that  it  would  be  more  tolerable  for  Sodom 

and    Gomorrah    than  for   them   in    the    day    of 

judgment.     And  when  He  speaks  of  His  clients 

it  is  as  of  persons  condemned  and  ruined.     '  The 

Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that 

which  is  lost.^     '  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he 

gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  be- 

lieveth  on  him  should  not  perish,  but  should  have 

everlasting  life.^     The  rescue  of  a  single  sinner  is 

such  a  glorious  event  that  there  is  joy  over  him 

in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God ;  and  the 

best  and  truest  representation  both  of  the  nature 

of  the  deliverance  and  the  joy  which  it  awakens, 

is  found  in  the  exclamation  of  the  father  of  the 

prodigal:  ^This  my  son  was  dead,  and  is  alive 

again;  he  was  lost,  and  is  found.^ 
3 


34  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

It  is  amazing  that  this  great  element  of  Christ's 
teaching  should  have  failed  to  arrest  universal  at- 
tention, and  that  in  some  of  those  able  books  on 
the  life  of  Christ  that  have  lately  appeared,  no 
notice  should  have  been  taken  of  it,  in  the  enum- 
eration of  the  great  lessons  of  his  ministry.  The 
fact  is,  and  it  is  a  most  instructive  and  remarka- 
ble one^  that  in  Christ's  own  discourses  there  are 
more  references  to  hell  and  its  punishments  than 
in  all  other  parts  of  the  Bible  put  together. 
Though  He  came  to  reveal  the  Father,  and  pre- 
eminently to  reveal  His  love ;  though  the  angels 
sung  at  His  birth,  '■  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
on  earth  peace,  good-will  to  men/  though  every 
utterance  of  His  lips  was  steeped  in  love,  and  all 
His  garments  smelled  of  myrrh  and  aloes  and 
cassia  out  of  the  ivory  palaces,  He  nevertheless 
spoke  more,  and  more  frequently,  of  hell,  than 
any  other  inspired  teacher  whatever.  The  only 
one  of  the  Apostles  that  in  any  marked  degree 
followed  up  this  line  of  teaching  was  that  beloved 
disciple  whose  heart  bore  the  closest  resemblance 


GOUS  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  35 


to  Christ's  own;  but  in  his  case  it  was  rather  sym- 
bolical pictures  of  retribution  than  direct  lessons 
on  hell  that  he  was  commissioned  to  communi- 
cate. And  is  there  not  something  very  solemn 
and  very  touching  in  the  fact  that  to  so  large  a 
degree  our  blessed  Lord  reserved  this  awful  line 
of  instruction  to  Himself?  On  the  one  hand, 
does  it  not  show  how  deeply  He  was  impressed 
with  the  reality  of  hell, — how  some  plaintive  dirge 
like  that  of  the  ^Dies  Irae'  seemed  ever  to  sound 
in  His  ears, — how  the  awful  fact  that  sin  had 
made  hell  the  eternal  prison  of  lost  humanity 
haunted  His  tender  soul,  and  gave  untold  bitter- 
ness to  His  tears,  depth  to  His  pity,  and  tenderness 
to  His  pleadings  ?  Does  it  not  go  far,  too,  to  ac- 
count for  the  bursts  of  holy  indignation  which  He 
poured  out  from  time  to  time  on  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  who  seemed  to  be  exerting  all  their  en- 
ergies to  hinder  the  escape  of  the  lost,  and  thrust 
them  back  into  their  horrid  prison  ?  On  the  other 
hand,  does  it  not  show  us  that,  in  the  view  of  our 
blessed   Lord,  this   whole   subject  of  everlasting 


36  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

punishment  was  too  solemn  to  be  handled  by 
common  hearts  or  in  common  moods_,  and  that  a 
wrong  impression  of  it  was  liable  to  be  conveyed, 
unless  it  were  set  forth  in  the  spirit  of  most  gentle 
compassion  and  longing  love  ?  Who  can  estim- 
ate the  evil  done  by  those  rough  and  hard-hearted 
denunciations  of  woe  in  which  some  indulge,  and 
which  even  from  Protestant  pulpits  are  no  better 
than  Papal  or  Pagan  anathemas  ?  Or  how  can 
we  sufficiently  deplore  the  fact,  that  when  men  are 
most  excited  by  passion  and  debased  by  sensual- 
ity, it  is  from  this  region  they  are  most  prone  to 
fetch  their  epithets  of  abuse !  that  the  mention  ot 
hell  and  damnation,  which  our  blessed  Lord  so 
earnestly  sought  to  associate  with  the  deepest 
solemnity  and  the  tenderest  awe,  should  be  con- 
nected, in  the  experience  of  multitudes,  only  with 
the  most  savage  passions  and  brutalities  of  the 
vilest  of  mankind ! 

We  must  remember,  at  the  same  time,  that 
while  our  Lord  thus  assumed  and  dealt  with  the 
lost  condition  of  men,  He  never  confounded  their 


GOUS  SENTENCE  ON  MAN  37 


several  shades  of  guilt,  or  their  several  degrees  of 
punishment.  He  left  abundant  room  for  dis- 
crimination between  the  servant  that  knew  his 
Lord^s  will  and  the  servant  that  knew  it  not ; 
and  while  He  made  it  quite  plain  that,  in  the  case 
of  those  to  whom  He  was  appealing,  and  all  in 
similar  circumstances,  the  great  law  of  punish- 
ment would  take  the  fullest  effect  if  they  disre- 
garded His  voice.  He  showed  such  reserve  in 
alluding  to  the  future  doom  of  communities,  like 
Tyre  and  Sidon,  or  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  as 
ought  to  repress  all  harsh  speculation  on  our  part 
as  to  their  future  condition,  and  make  us  fall 
back  in  patient  trust  on  the  soothing  and  assur- 
ing thought — ^  Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth 
do  right?' 

3.  If  we  seek  for  still  further  evidence  of  God's 
sentence  on  sinful  man,  we  shall  find  it  in  the  ex- 
perience of  all  in  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  begins 
the  new  life  by  convincing  them  of  sin.  The 
starting-point  of  that  life  is  the  sense  of  ruin, 
the  consciousness  of  being  exposed  to  everlast- 


38  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

ing  misery — sometimes  springing  up  in  the  soul 
with  instantaneous  suddenness^  and  sometimes 
beginning  quietly,  and  gradually  increasing  in 
strength,  until  at  last  it  becomes  insupportable. 

Thus_,  on  the  great  day  of  Pentecost,  the  first 
evidence  of  a  Divine  work  was  seen  when  the 
thousands  were  pricked  in  their  heart,  and  said  to 
Peter  and  the  rest  of  the  Apostles,  ^Men  and 
brethren,  what  shall  we  do?^  They  felt  them- 
selves condemned  and  lost;  God^s  verdict  and 
sentence  of  death  against  them  as  sinners,  were 
borne  home  to  their  consciences  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit;  and  that  great  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  which  makes  us  shrink  from  ap- 
proaching hurt  and  destruction  was  roused  into 
unprecedented  activity,  because  their  danger  seem- 
ed to  come  from  the  Author  of  their  being,  and 
the  destruction  that  hung  over  them  was  infinite 
and  everlasting. 

The  intensity  of  men^s  convictions  mav  differ 
greatly  according  to  the  measure  and  manner  of 
the  power  exerted  by  the  Spirit,  and  the  tempera- 


GOD'S  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  39 

ment  and  circumstances  of  the  persons  themselves. 
But  unless  there  has  been  produced  in  men^s 
hearts,  at  some  time  and  in  some  way,  a  real 
sense  of  sin  and  condemnation,  leading  to  a  real 
acceptance  of  the  Saviour  and  His  work,  there  can 
be  no  reliance  on  the  permanence  of  their  im- 
pressions; their  goodness  may  be  but  as  the  morn- 
ing cloud  and  the  early  dew. 

Christianity  answers  to  all  the  w^ants  of  man^s 
nature,  the  more  superficial  as  well  as  the  more 
profound.  It  answers,  for  example,  to  his  desire 
of  knowledge,  his  admiration  of  what  is  noble 
and  disinterested,  his  craving  for  sympathy,  his 
love  of  rest,  his  longing  for  a  happier  world,  his 
ardent  desire  for  re- union  with  all  whom  he  has 
loved  and  lost.  Taking  hold  of  such  feelings  as 
these,  Christianity  exerts  a  measure  of  influence 
on  many.  But  if  no  deeper  cravings  have  been 
stirred,  and  no  firmer  grip  has  been  taken,  of  the 
soul,  its  serious  feelings  may  change  with  the 
seasons,  and  even  vanish  like  a  dream.  Doubt- 
less it  was  such  superficial  impressions  that  our 


40  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

Lord  meant  to  indicate  in  this  parable  of  the 
sower^  by  the  seed  on  stony  ground  that  sprung 
up  so  rapidly,  but  as  soon  as  the  sun  was  up, 
withered  away,  because  it  had  no  root  and  no 
deepness  of  earth.  To  endure  for  ever,  and  bring 
forth  fruit,  religion  must  take  hold  on  the  deep- 
est wants  of  our  nature.  It  must  come  to  us  as 
lost  sinners,  in  fact,  bringing  iis  the  salvation 
that  we  need.  It  must  come  to  us  as  the  rope 
comes  to  the  shipwrecked  sailor,  as  food  comes 
to  the  famished  traveller,  as  a  reprieve  comes  to 
the  condemned  malefactor.  We  must  take  hold 
on  Christ,  not  merely  because  He  is  a  nobler 
character  than  Brahma  or  Mahomet;  not  merely 
because  His  religion  has  a  gentler  spirit  and  a 
purer  aim ;  not  merely  because  the  New  Jerusalem 
is  a  fairer  city,  and  its  music  of  a  sweeter  strain ; 
not  merely  because  the  scriptural  vision  of  Para- 
dise Regained  is  the  brightest  we  have  ever  known 
or  fancied; — but,  emphatically,  because  we  are 
condemned  criminals,  and  Christ  only  can  pardon 
us ;  because  our  hearts  are  under  sin,  and  Christ 


GOD'S  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  41 

only  can  free  us ;  because  we  are  unfit  for  holy 
fellowship_,  and  Christ  only  can  make  us  meet  to 
be  partakers  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in 
light;  in  a  word_,  because  we  are  wretched^  and 
miserable,  and  poor,  and  naked,  and  blind ;  and 
no  store  but  that  of  Christ^s  fulness  can  provide 
the  blessings  out  of  which  such  numberless  wants 
can  be  supplied. 

When  any  one^s  heart  is  truly  under  the  con- 
vincing power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  there  are  at 
least  two  views  of  his  state  that  give  rise  to  the 
conviction  that  he  is  justly  condemned  in  the 
.iight  of  God. 

In  the  first  place,  many  are  overwhelmed  by 
a  sense  of  the  guilt  of  their  past  lives.  It  is  the 
past  that  appals  them.  All  along,  from  very 
infancy  to  the  moment  when  conscience  awoke, 
they  see  nothing  but  a  career  of  guilt.  The 
grand  purpose  of  their  lives  neglected ;  the  great 
God,  whose  their  breath  is,  treated  with  indiffer- 
ence, His  holy  law  trampled  under  foot,  self- 
indulged   and  humoured  in   a  thousand   forms. 


42  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

irregular  lusts  and  passions  tolerated; — all  these, 
varied  perhaps  by  deeper  and  darker  crimes,  seem 
strewn  in  dismal  profusion  along  their  bygone 
hves.  It  is  not  as  if  they  had  been  labouring  in 
the  main  to  serve  God,  and  here  and  there  had 
failed.  It  seems  rather  as  if  God  had  been  utterly 
neglected,  had  not  received  from  them  one  act  of 
genuine  service,  one  throb  of  filial  affection,  or 
one  feeling  of  loyal  devotion.  A  glimpse  of  the 
bright  devotion  and  service  of  the  angels  gives  a 
deeper  shade  to  the  guilt  that  shrouds  their  life. 
And  u'hen  they  come  to  see  God  in  His  true 
character,  as  revealed  in  Christ,  rich  in  mercy  and 
overflowing  with  love,  yet  infinitely  holy,  the 
sense  of  their  unworthy  conduct  becomes  over- 
whelming. ^  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner,^  is 
the  prayer  that  rushes  to  their  lips;  ^if  thou. 
Lord,  shouldest  mark  iniquity,  O  Lord,  who 
shall  stand  ? ' 

There  are  others,  again,  who  are  overwhelmed 
chiefly  by  the  sense  of  their  present  or  current  de- 
ficiencies in  the  sight  of  God.     It  is  the  present, 


GOnS  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  43 

rather  than  the  past^  that  appals  them.  Let 
them  try  their  very  best,  they  cannot  come  near 
to  the  requirements  of  God^s  holy  law.  Iniqui- 
ties are  ever  prevailing  against  them.  The  heart 
is  like  a  mint,  coining  ungodly  feelings  in  guilty 
profusion.  Though  you  were  to  assure  them  of 
pardon  for  the  past,  it  would  matter  but  little, 
so  long  as  their  ungodly  hearts  were  there  to  pour 
out  fresh  streams  of  corruption  and  wickedness. 
They  mourn  most  bitterly  their  diseased,  sin- 
ridden  nature.  How  is  that  polluted  fountain 
ever  to  be  turned  into  a  crystal  stream  ?  Each 
time  they  survey  their  hearts  they  see  fresh  evi- 
dence of  the  awful  virulence  of  the  leprosy  that 
has  assailed  them,  and  feel  disposed,  like  the 
leper  of  old,  to  rend  their  clothes  and  bare  their 
heads,  and  exclaim,  ^  Unclean  !  unclean  !  ^  In 
spite  of  their  most  earnest  efforts,  despair  would 
seize  them,  were  there  no  free  grace  to  brighten 
their  prospects.  The  forlorn  and  exhausted  travel- 
ler who  has  lost  his  way  in  a  wintry  night,  and 
after  shouting  himself  hoarse,  and  dragging  his 


44  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

limbs  through  drifting  snow^  till  he  can  drag  no 
longer^  feels  as  if  there  were  nothing  for  him  but 
to  lie  down  and  sleep  the  sleep  that  knows  no 
waking,  does  not  experience  half  such  joy  and 
relief,  when  a  light  hard  by  suddenly  reveals  a 
friendly  cottage^  as  the  sinner,  wearied  in  his 
vain  efforts  to  purify  his  heart,  feels  when  he 
hears  the  voice  of  Jesus — ^  Come  unto  me,  all  ye 
that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest/ 

No  doubt  it  seems  a  hard  doctrine  that  in  the 
sight  of  God  all  men  are  under  condemnation. 
Human  nature  sometimes  appears  in  so  interest- 
ing a  light  that  it  seems  as  if  none  but  the  most 
heartless  of  men  could  believe  that  all  lie  under 
the  sentence  of  death.  Gentle  beings  come  on 
the  scene,  whose  very  looks  of  love  and  goodness 
seem  to  warm  the  air  and  ^make  a  sunshine  in 
the  shady  place  j^  noble-hearted  men  spring  for- 
ward to  deeds  of  generosity  and  self-denial  that 
draw  one  long  burst  of  applause  from  every  spec- 
tator; and  it  seems  horrible  to  suppose  that  such 


GOnS  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  45 

persons  are  to  be  regarded  as  '  children  of  wrath^ 
even  as  others/  The  doctrine  of  the  Bible  is  that 
they  are  so  ly  nature.  Who  can  tell  but  that 
very  gentleness  and  generosity  are  fruits  of  grace  ? 
It  is  certain  that  '  every  good  and  perfect  gift  is 
from  above,  and  cometh  down  from  the  Father  of 
lights,  with  whom  there  is  no  variableness,  or 
shadow  of  turning/  Happily,  we  are  not  required 
to  judge  what  degree  of  consciousness  of  renewal 
there  must  be  during  the  introduction  of  the 
divine  life  into  any  heart,  and  its  establishment 
there  with  a  preponderating  power.  This  is  one 
of  the  deep  things  of  God,  from  which,  in  many 
instances.  He  has  not  been  pleased  to  remove  the 
veil  of  mystery.  Men  are  only  too  ready  to  tear 
away  the  veil  left  by  God,  and  to  constitute  them- 
selves judges  of  the  spiritual  state  of  their  brethren. 
But  let  us  grant  that  beautiful  features  may  appear 
in  the  character  of  the  unregenerate,  in  the  cha- 
racter of  men  whom  the  will  of  God  does  not 
habitually  sway,  and  who  have  no  knowledge  of 
the  grace  of  God  in  Christ.     It  does  not  follow 


46  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

that  because  of  these  beautiful  features  they  are 
not  under  the  condemnation  of  God.  A  chain 
may  have  some  admirable  links  in  it,  and  yet  be 
as  unserviceable  as  a  hempen  cord.  An  old  abbey 
may  present  a  perfect  arch  or  a  beautiful  capital 
here  and  there,,  and  yet  be  an  utter  ruin.  A  ship 
may  show  a  beautifully  carved  prow,  or  a  faultless 
deck,  and  yet  be  as  unfit  for  sea  as  the  coarsest 
raft  that  was  ever  nailed  together.  The  question 
is  not  whether  men  or  women  have  some  interest- 
ing and  attractive  features  about  them.  You 
generally  find  that  in  the  character  even  of  the 
bacchanalian  there  is  a  sort  of  jovial  good-humour, 
which  is  attractive  to  his  companions,  and  con- 
tributes to  the  hilarity  of  the  social  hour.  But. 
this  flowing  joviality  may  exist  side  by  side  with 
the  spirit  that  breaks  the  heart  of  a  gentle  wife, 
and  leaves  the  offspring  of  his  own  body  unclothed, 
unfed,  untaught,  uncared  for.  So  also  there  may 
be  bursts  of  generosity  and  gleams  of  gentleness 
in  natures  that  show  great  deficiency  under  the 
strain  of  ordinary  duty.     Account  for  such  beau- 


GOUS  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  47 

tiful  features  as  we  may,  they  in  no  way  clash  with 
the  truth  that  men  by  nature  He  under  a  sentence 
of  death  in  the  sight  of  God.  Who  that  is  weighed 
in  the  balances  of  the  All-holy  One  shall  not  be 
found  wanting  ?  Who  shall  escape  the  condemn- 
ation due  to  those  that  have  failed  in  the  great 
end  of  life — have  worshipped  and  served  the  crea- 
ture more  than  the  Creator^  who  is  blessed  for 
evermore  ?  Who  can  affirm  that,  without  any 
renewing  process  from  above,  the  power  of  good 
in  his  nature  preponderates  above  the  power  of 
evil,  and  that  he  finds  within  himself  strength 
sufficient  to  conquer  in  every  conflict,  the  lust  of 
the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life 
— all,  in  short,  that  is  not  of  the  Father,  but  of 
the  world  ?  No  doubt  there  may  be  found  men 
who  affirm  that  they  do  all  this,  just  as  the 
young  man  in  the  Gospel  most  honestly  assured 
Christ  that  he  had  kept  all  the  commandments 
from  his  youth.  But  as  our  blessed  Lord  had  in 
reserve  a  test  of  fidelity  to  high  duty  which  even 
this  young  man  could   not   stand,   so   must   all 


48     ■  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

boasters  and  self-complacent  flatterers  find,  in  the 
great  day  of  judgment,  that  their  standard  has 
been  miserably  defective,  and  their  performance 
infinitely  inadequate.  While  the  weather  con- 
tinues calm  and  mild,  it  is  easy  to  live  in  a  house 
built  upon  the  sand.  It  is  when  the  rain  descends, 
and  the  wind  comes,  and  beats  upon  that  house, 
that  its  real  feebleness  is  discovered,  and  its  help- 
less inhabitant  buried  in  the  ruins.  Sometimes, 
even  in  this  life,  the  self-satisfied  pharisee  is  dis- 
turbed in  his  fancied  security.  The  sick  bed  brings 
him  nearer  to  God,  and  in  that  clearer  and  holier 
light,  his  life  has  an  ugly  look,  and  he  trembles  to 
look  forward.  If  the  few  streaks,  as  it  were,  of 
divine  light  that  penetrate  by  the  sick  chamber 
into  the  soul,  can  shake  his  confidence,  what  must 
he  feel  in  the  full  blaze  of  the  judgment-seat  ? 
For  ^  the  loftiness  of  man  shall  be  bowed  down, 
and  the  haughtiness  of  men  shall  be  brought  low  : 
and  the  Lord  alone  shall  be  exalted  in  that  day.' 

It  is  vain  to  make  out  that  we  are  clean  in 
the  sight  of  God.     Strive  as  he  may,  the  Ethi- 


GOD'S  SENTENCE  ON  MAN.  49 

opian  cannot  change  his  skin^  nor  the  leopard  his 
spots.  Infinitely  better  at  once  to  give  up  the 
conflict ;  to  let  the  divine  light  in  freely  upon  our 
hearts  and  lives;  to  admit  the  justice  of  the 
divine  sentence  against  us;  to  cease  to  dispute 
the  truth  that  ^  the  wages  of  sin  is  death  ;  ^  and  to 
find  our  comfort  in  the  glorious  counter-truth^ 
^  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord/ 


III. 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN. 


'^  T  7HEN  the  ostrich,  scouring  along  the  sandy 
desert,  finds  that  it  cannot  escape  the  hunts- 
man, it  is  said  to  thrust  its  head  into  a  bush,  and 
remain  there,  quite  tranquil,  to  receive  the  death- 
blow. Poor  senseless,  stupid  bird^  it  seems  to 
fancy  that  the  danger  which  it  ceases  to  see  has 
ceased  to  exist.  But  men,  as  well  as  brutes,  do 
so;  and  not  by  one  degree  more  rational  than 
the  composure  of  a  bird  at  whose  folly  they 
themselves  v^^ould  be  the  first  to  smile,  is  the 
peace  of  those  who,  that  they  may  enjoy  the 
pleasures  of  sin,  shut  their  eyes  to  its  evil,  and 
refuse  to  look  that,  and  their  own  danger,  in  the 
face.     I  do  not  deny  that  they,  having  persuaded 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN,  51 


themselv^es  that  sin  is  a  trivial  thing,  and  by  no 
means,  to  use  the  language  of  Scripture,  ^ex- 
ceeding sinful,^  ^njoy  a  sort  of  peace.  They  have 
laid  the  flattering  unction  to  their  souls  that  God 
is  all  merciful — that  they  have  not  been  great 
sinners — that  they  have  done  no  one  harm,  but 
themselves  perhaps — that  many  people  are  worse 
than  they — and  that  however  they  may  have 
sinned,  the  prayers  and  penitence  of  a  death-bed 
shall  set  all  right.  But  I  have  seen  the  adminis- 
tration of  an  opiate  produce  a  similar  effect — 
casting  a  man  into  so  deep  a  slumber  that  he 
felt  no  pain.  But  for  the  low  whispers  of  the 
attendants,  the  solemn  stillness  of  the  room,  and 
the  anxious  countenances  of  those  that  were 
watching  by  his  side,  none  would  have  fancied 
that  a  mortal  disease  was  raging  within  his  vitals, 
and  hurrying  him  on  to  the  grave.  And  not 
more  different  this  sleep  from  tired  nature's 
healthful  slumbers,  than  the  peace  of  the  ungodly 
from  his  who  is  resting  by  faith  on  Jesus,  and 
has  made  his  ^  callinc^  and  election  sure.' 


52  SA  VING  KNOWLEDGE.  , 

Nor  is  it  only  exemption  from  '^the  stings^  of 
conscience  a  man  may  enjoy  who  shuts  his  eyes 
to  the  e\al  of  sin.  He  may  enjoy  positive  happi- 
ness of  a  kind ;  and  be  to  appearance  Wither  and 
in  better  spirits  than  better  men.  What  of  that? 
So  is  yon  drunkard^  who  has  drowned  all  his 
sorrows  with  his  senses  in  the  flowino;  bowl — the 
ragged  wretch  who_,  untouched  by  the  sad  looks 
of  the  broken-hearted  wife  and  children  that  sit 
cowering,  shivering  over  some  niiserable  embers^ 
stands  on  the  floor  of  his  dismantled  home,  and 
casts  idiot  smiles  on  the  wreck  around  him.  I 
do  not  deny  that  there  is  pleasure  in  sin.  Were 
it  not  sOj  there  would  be  fewer  sinners.  But 
when  I  look  at  its  end — that  ^  the  way  of  trans- 
gressors is  hard  ^ — how  justly  may  it  be  compared 
to  the  delirium  of  sailors  who,  when  the  bonds 
of  order  are  broken_,  and  all  further  efforts  to  save 
themselves  and  their  ship  are  abandoned_,  hoist 
the  spirit  cask  on  deck,  and  maddening  their 
brains  with  drink,  go  down  into  the  deep  amid 
shouts   of    laughter    and    songs   of    merriment. 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  53 

Even  so^  many^  intoxicated  with  the  pleasures  of 
sin^  go  down  into  perdition. 

There  is  a  state  worse^  more  hopeless  perhaps, 
'han  either  of  these.  They  stand  in  great  danger 
of  damnation  who  shut  their  eyes  to  the  evil  of 
sin,  but  they  in  greater  who,  practising  iniquity 
till  conscience  grows  seared  and  dead,  have  ceased 
to  feel  its  evil.  Such  in  some  cases  is  their 
apathy  that  it  seems  as  if  God  had  cast  them  oif, 
and  said,  provoked  by  their  long-continued  re- 
sistance to  the  remonstrances  of  conscience  and 
of  his  word  and  Spirit,  ^  He  is  joined  to  his  idols, 
let  him  alone.^  There  lies  our  danger  if  we  are 
trusting  for  salvation  to  a  death-bed  repentance. 
People  think  they  will  be  very  much  alarmed  at 
the  approach  of  death.  There  is  no  greater 
mistake :  the  greatest  wonder  death-beds  show, 
and  ministers  see,  being  not  the  calmness  with 
which  a  believer  dies,  but  the  insensibility,  the 
deep,  unmoved,  and  unmoveable  apathy  with 
which  others  meet  death.  '  There  are  no  bands 
in  their,  death — they  are  not  in  trouble  as  other 


54  SA  VING  KNO IVLEDGE. 

men/  as  the  Bible  says.  By  their  dying-bed — no 
place  for  flattery,  or  'healing  the  hurt  of  the 
daughter  of  God's  people  slightly' — they  have 
been  told  the  most  alarming  truths ;  I  have 
thundered  the  law  of  Sinai  in  their  ears;  I 
have  set  forth  a  dvinor  Saviour  with  the  love  of 

-       o 

Calvary  before  their  eves^  but  it  produced 
neither  a  response  nor  emotion.  Fearing  no- 
thing, if  hoping  nothing,  they  have  gone  to 
their  ^own  place'  more  calmly  than  many  a 
saint  who  dies  in  Jesus'  arms,  and  leaves  earth 
for  heaven. 

It  is  said  of  the  rich  man  in  the  parable  that 
*"  in  hell  he  lift  up  his  eyes,  being  in  torment,' 
Alas,  it  is  too  late — too  late  then  to  get  our  eyes 
opened ;  and  therefore  I  shall  try,  with  prayer 
for  God's  blessing,  to  set  before  my  readers  some 
considerations  calculated  to  demonstrate  and 
illustrate  the  evil  of  sin. 

There  is  a  cruel  deception  often  practised  on 
the  dying.  They  are  left  to  indulge  hopes  of 
life  after  their  case  is  hopeless;  the  friends  who 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  55 

were  parties  to  this  deception — if  friends  they 
can  be  called — thereby  laying  up  for  themselves 
a  source  of  unavailing  regrets.  If  people  are  true 
Christians^  it  is  of  no  moment,  or  at  least  of 
little  moment,  that  they  should  know  themselves 
to  be  dying :  but  if  otherwise,  the  sooner  they 
know  the  worst  the  better;  for  who  can  tell  but 
God  may  call  at  the  eleventh  hour  ?  There  is 
Something  more  culpable  and  cruel  than  conceal- 
ment of  the  truth.  The  dying  are  not  left  to 
deceive  themselves,  but  are  deceived.  Every,  the 
most  remote,  allusion  to  death  is  positively  for- 
bidden :  ingenuity  is  taxed  by  schemes  of  future 
pleasure,  books  of  light  reading,  and  amusements 
to  divert  the  mind  from  solemn  thoughts,  and 
keep  them  ^  cheerful/  as  it  is  called  :  as  new  and 
more  fatal  symptoms  arise,  they  are  carefully 
concealed  :  they  may  be  shed  without  the  dying 
chamber,  but  no  tears  are  allowed,  nor  sorrow  on 
any  face  within  it  j  and  so  the  play,  the  pitiful 
tragedy,  goes  on  till  the  poor  victim  of  mistaken 
kindness  is  hurried  away  into  an  unexpected,  and 


56  SA  VI NG  KNOWLEDGE. 

perhaps   unprepared    for^   eternity.     Verily^  '  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  wicked  are  cruel/ 

But  that  expression  appHes  with  still  more 
force  to  those  who,  called  to  be  ambassadors  of 
Jesus  Christ,  shrink  from  setting  forth  the  in- 
herent evil  and  awful  punishment  of  sin — that, 
in  the  words  of  Scripture,  Mt  is  an  evil  and  a 
bitter  thing  to  sin  against  the  Lord  ! '  Some  will 
not  tolerate  any  allusion  to  hell,  beyond  the  most 
distant — and  that  with  bated  breath.  They  can- 
not abide  to  hear  of  it;  denouncing  him  as  a 
gloomy  preacher  who,  not  for  his  own  pleasure 
but  others'  profit,  ventures  on  this  awful  and 
most  sad  subject  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of 
God.  They  say,  ^  Prophesy  unto  us  smooth 
things.'  The  storm  rages,  the  ship  is  sinking; 
yet  they  deem  him  an  intruder  on  their  peace 
who  attempts  to  wake  them,  crying,  ^  What 
meanest  thou,  O  sleeper?  arise  and  call  upon 
thy  God  1  '  There  are  certainly  more  agreeable 
topics — the  goodness  of  God,  which  should  lead 
us    to    repentance — the   love    of    Christ,    which, 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  57 

should  sweetly  constrain  us  to  live  to  Him  who 
died  for  us — the  joys  of  heaven_,  which  by  virtue 
of  their  superior  attractions  should  withdraw  our 
affections  from  the  things  that  are  seen  and 
temporal  to  those  that  are  unseen  and  eternal. 
No  doubt  also  it  is  not  so  much  by  driving  as  by 
drawing  that  sinners  are  ordinarily  brought  to 
Jesus :  and  it  is  a  far  more  agreeable  task  to 
melt  a  hard  heart  by  arguments  of  kindness,  than 
attempt  to  break  it  by  arguments  of  fear — to 
work  with  the  fire  than  with  the  hammer^  God^s 
word  being  compared  to  both.  Yet  the  same 
apostle  who,  scattering  Christ^s  blessed  name  as 
thick  on  his  epistles  as  God  has  done  ^tars  in  the 
nightly  firmament,  sought  to  constrain  men  by 
the  love  of  Christ,  persuades  them  also  by  the 
terrors  of  the  Lord.  He  who  asked,  ^Despisest 
thou  the  riches  of  his  goodness,  and  forbearance, 
and  long-suffering,  not  knowing  that  the  good- 
ness of  God  leadeth  to  repentance  ?  ^  also  asked, 
^Thinkest  thou,  O  man,  that  thou  shalt  escape 
the  judgment  of  God?^     'Knowing   the   terror 


58  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

of  the  Lord/  said  St  Paul_,  ^  we  persuade  men.-* 
Hence  his  tears^  and  these  touching  words^  ^  I 
have  told  you  often,  and  now  tell  you  even  weep- 
ing, that  they  are  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of 
Christ,  whose  end  is  destruction/  No  wonder 
he  wept.  The  wonder  is  that  we  can  read  with 
so  little  emotion  what  fell  in  trembling  accents 
from  the  Saviour's  lips — of  a  worm  that  never 
dieth,  and  a  fire  that  is  never  quenched.  Why 
are  we  so  callous  ?  Why  is  not  our  pity 
so  moved,  and  our  hearts  melted,  and  our 
fears  awakened  for  poor  careless  sinners,  that 
we  might  adopt  the  language  of  the  Psalmist, 
and  say,  ^  Rivers  of  waters  run  down  mine  eyes, 
because  they  keep  not  thy  law!^ 

The  way  of  transgressors  is  indeed  hard;  and 
we  see  the  nature  of  sin  plainly  revealed  in  its 
dreadful  effects.  For  there  are  two  methods  by 
which  we  may  arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  the 
nature  of  anything;  we  may  either  analyze  Its 
properties,  or  discover  them  by  studying  its  effects. 
Taking,  for  instance,  a  deadly  drug — I  may,  on 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  59 

the  one  hand^  by  analysis^  find  it  to  be  coinposed 
of  elements  highly  deleterious  and  fatal  to  life  ; 
on  the  other  hand_,  I  may  take  the  shorter  and 
more  impressive  method  of  administering  it  to 
some  of  the  inferior  creatures,  and  see  the  viru- 
lence of  the  poison  in  the  violence  of  its  effects — 
horrible  convulsions  and  a  speedy  death.  Some 
poisons  are  so  deadly  that  a  grain  or  a  few  drops 
of  them  is  as  fatal  as  a  ball  through  the  brain^  or 
a  knife  stuck  into  the  heart.  To  such  a  poison 
sin  may  with  truth  be  compared  ;  and  nothing 
but  their  ignorance  or  disregard  of  its  deadly 
nature  would  allow  men  to  tamper  with  it^  or 
speak  lightly  of  the  smallest  sin. 

It  may  be  difficult  for  analysis  to  convey  to 
some  any  sense  of  the  evil  that  lies  in  all  sin ;  but, 
surely,  that  may  be  understood  by  contemplating 
its  effects.  A  child  could  understand  the  force 
latent  in  a  cup  of  water,  on  seeing  it_,  when  con- 
verted into  steam,  rend  asunder  a  plate  of  iron^  or 
a  mass  of  solid  rock;  or  the  power  of  lightning, 
if  he  saw  it  in  the  thunderstorm   leap   dazzling 


6o  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

from  the  clouds,  and  striking  some  stately  tree 
rive  its  trunk_,  and  scatter  its  leafy  glories  on  the 
ground  ;  or  the  venom  of  the  cobra^s  fang,  on 
seeing  the  reptile  raise  its  hooded  crest  to  strike, 
and  him  it  struck  reel,  and  fall,  and  die  at  his 
feet.  Let  sin,  in  like  manner,  be  tried  by  its 
effects  j  and  who,  with  a  mind  enlightened,  can 
look  on  the  sad  change  it  has  wrought  on  man, 
on  the  divine  beauty  it  defaced,  on  the  favour  it 
forfeited,  on  the  happiness  it  wrecked,  on  the 
curse  it  has  entailed  and  the  fire  it  has  kindled, 
on  the  misery  it  breeds  in  time  and  perpetuates  in 
eternity,  without  seeing  ^  sin  become  exceeding 
sinful/  Look  at  Eden !  Man's  disobedience 
there,  his  plucking  the  forbidden  fruit,  may  seem 
to  some  a  trivial  offence;  but  does  the  misery  it 
brought  on  Adam,  and  entailed  on  his  posterity 
throughout  all  generations,  justify  such  a  term  ? 
Put  a  case. 

Suppose  some  day,  when  passing  the  house  of 
one  revered  for  his  piety,  and  universally  respected 
for  his  character,  and  known  to  be  the  gentlest 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN. 


and  kindest  and  most  affectionate  of  fathers,  you 
saw  him  driving  from  his  door  the  son  and  daugh- 
ter he  had  lov^ed_,  and  cherished,  and  hved  with  in 
sweetest  fellowship — with  sad  but  stern  voice 
ordering  them  out  of  his  presence,  you  would 
stand  amazed ;  but  you  would  neither  need  him, 
nor  any  one  else,  to  assure  you  that  before  he  had 
driven  forth  these  weeping  ones  to  want,  and 
shame,  and  sorrow,  they  had  been  guilty  of  some 
most  aggravated  crime — an  offence  no  father  could 
pass  by,  or  palliate,  or  lightly  pardon.  But  the 
love  God  bore  to  His  human  children  has  far 
transcended  any  that  beats  or  burns  in  a  father^s 
or  mother^s  bosom,  as  the  heavens  rise  above  the 
earth ;  and  who  can  see  Him  drive  them  from 
His  presence,  order  them  away,  without  feeling 
that  there  must  be  a  guilt  in  sin  which  we  have 
no  line  to  fathom  nor  powers  to  comprehend  ! 
There  had  been  no  place  of  woe  otherwise,  for 
God  has  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  him  that 
dieth,  nor  is  He  willing  that  any  should  perish; 
nor  otherwise  had  His  beloved  Son,  betrayed  by  a 


62  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 


friend,  disowned  by  the  creatures  of  His  hand, 
and  deserted  by  His  Father  and  God,  bled  on  the 
accursed  tree.  If  sin  was  not  exceeding  sinful 
and  hateful,  a  less  noble  victim  had  satisfied  the 
demands  of  justice,  and  a  less  dreadful  expiation 
upheld  the  honour  of  a  broken  law.  How  deep 
the  stain  which  it  required  the  blood  of  God's 
own  Son  to  wash  out !  How  heavy  the  burden 
beneath  which  He  sank,  whose  arms  sustain  the 
universe !  What  sorrows  those  which  forced  from 
His  patient  lips  this  cry,  ^My  soul  is  exceeding 
sorrowful,  even  unto  death  1 ' — the  still  more  mys- 
terious complaint  of  Calvary,  '  My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  ^  If  the  virulence  of 
a  disease  may  be  measured  by  the  violence  of  its 
remedy,  or  the  greatness  of  a  debt  by  the  sum 
paid  for  the  discharge  of  the,  debtor,  the  evil  that 
is  in  sin  is  as  immeasurable  as  the  love  for  which, 
with  all  his  glowing  piety  and  power  of  language, 
St  Paul  found  no  fitter  expression  than  this,  ^  Oh 
the  height  and  depth  and  breadth  and  length  of 
the  love  of  God,  it  passeth  knowledge !  ^ 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  63 

A  bitter  thing,  whether  we  contemplate  its 
consequences  here  or  hereafter,  in  this  world  or 
the  next,  sin  undoubtedly  is.  It  is  more.  That 
may  be  called  bitter  which,  in  a  moral  sense,  is 
not  evil — inherently  and  necessarily  evil.  Extreme 
poverty  is  bitter,  as  where  a  parent  looks  round 
on  hungry  and  hollow-eyed  children  when  there 
is  neither  fire  on  the  hearth  nor  a  morsel  of  food 
in  the  house — '  When  they  cry  for  bread,  and 
their  mother  has  none  to  give  them/  Yet  there 
is  no  moral  evil  in  poverty ;  it  is  no  crime ;  on 
the  contrary,  '■  hath  not  God  chosen  the  poor  of 
this  world  rich  in  faith  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom  ?^ 
It  is  a  bitter  thing,  also,  to  lie  under  the  hand  of 
acute  disease,  tossing  on  a  bed  of  pain,  vainly 
turning  from  side  to  side  for  relief,  counting  the 
long  night's  lazy  hours ;  when  it  is  night,  weary- 
ing for  the  morning;  and  when  the  morning 
comes,  wearying  for  the  night.  Yet,  in  a  moral 
sense,  there  is  no  evil  here ;  on  the  contrary, 
while  the  outward  man  perisheth — strength  turns 
to  weakness,  beauty  to  ghastly  pallor,  and  sym- 


64  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

metry  to  deformity — the  inward  man  may  be  re- 
newing day  by  day.  It  was  a  bitter  thing  for 
martyrs  to  suffer  for  righteousness'  sake;. to  pine 
away  in  lonely  exile;  to  perish  on  a  scaffold;  to 
be  bound  and  burned  at  a  stake.  Yet^  in  a  moral 
sense^  it  was  not  evil ;  on  the  contrary,  Christ 
pronounced  them  ^blessed/  who  suffer;  winning 
a  martvr's  crown,  great  is  their  reward  in  heaven. 
Let  us  beware  of  looking  on  sin  as  we  might 
on  disease,  or  poverty,  or  persecution — our  only 
dread  its  bitter  consequences.  Take  these  away; 
let  death  come,  but  not  as  a  grim  messenger  sum- 
moning men  to  God's  awful  presence;  let  the 
grave  give  up  its  dead,  but  not  to  judgment;  let 
there  be  a  place  of  happiness,  but  none  of  misery; 
and  many  would  see  nothing  in  sin  to  shock  their 
feelings  or  deter  them  from  committing  it — from 
drinking  up  iniquity  as  the  ox  drinketh  up  the 
water.  But  what  an  imperfect  view  of  sin  is 
theirs— imperfect  as  his  of  the  crimes  of  robbery 
or  murder  who,  were  there  no  society  to  point  the 
finger  of  scorn  at  him,  nor  prison  to  hold,  nor 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN. 


judge  to  try,  nor  gallows  to  hang  him,  would  steal 
your  property,  nor  scruple  to  take  your  life.  I 
believe  no  man  can  measure  the  depths  of  evil 
that  are  in  sin  ;  but  he  certainly  has  no  adequate 
idea  of  them  who,  though  sin  should  cease  to  be 
punished,  and  universal  salvation  were  proclaimed 
from  the  skies,  so  that  there  were  henceforth  no 
hell,  nor  judgment,  but  heaven  for  all  and  hell  for 
none,  would  cease  to  regard  it  as  an  evil  thing — 
^this  abominable  thing  that  I  hate,^  saith  the 
Lord. 

All  the  guilt  that  lies  in  foul  rebellion  against 
the  mildest  and  most  merciful  of  earthly  mon- 
archs — in  disobeying  the  kindest,  and  grieving 
the  best  of  fathers — in  ingratitude  to  a  generous 
benefactor — in  returning  cursing  for  blessing,  evil 
for  good,  and  hatred  for  favours,  in  wounding  a 
heart  that  loves  us  and  the  hand  that  was 
stretched  out  to  pluck  us  from  destruction  — 
in  refusing  to  please  One  who,  though  rich,  for 
our  sakes  made  Himself  poor;  took  our  debts  on 

Him  and  paid  them  ;  took  our  burdens  on  Him 

s 


66  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

and  carried  them ;  and  bearing  disgrace  to  crown 
us  with  honour^  saved  our  hves  at  the  expense  of 
His  own; — all  that  evil,  multiplied  a  thousand 
and  a  thousand  times,  there  is  in  sin.  It  is  a 
horrible  crime  committed  against  a  gracious  God 
and  a  loving  Saviour — to  say  nothing  of  the  in- 
juries our  sins  have  inflicted  on  ourselves,  and  the 
irreparable  wrongs  they  may  have  done  to  others. 
It  is  from  such  views  that  true  repentance  springs. 
Are  they  ours?  Different  from  the  remorse  of 
yon  haggard  and  hardened  wretch,  who,  at  the 
door  of  a  prison  or  the  foot  of  a  gallows,  when  his 
sins  have  found  him  out,  sees  their  evil  only  in 
their  punishment ;  it  is  not  where  the  lake  burns 
to  consume,  but  Jesus  bleeds  to  save,  sin  is  seen 
in  its  greatest  evil,  and  felt  by  God^s  people  to  be 
their  deepest  grief.  ^They  shall  look  on  him 
whom  they  have  pierced,  and  mourn  as  one 
mourneth  for  an  only  son,  and  be  in  bitterness 
as  one  is  in  bitterness  for  a  first-born.^  The 
importance  of  correct  views  of  the  evil  that  lies 
in   sin    cannot   be   exaggerated.     To   inadequate 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  67 

ideas  of  that  may  be  traced  the  very  imperfect 
conceptions  some  entertain  of  the  necessity  and 
great  work  of  the  atonement — of  Christ,  as  our 
substitute,  bearing  our  griefs  and  carrying  our 
sorrows,  and  so  opening  up  a  passage  for  the 
ocean  of  divine  love  to  flow  out  in  the  blessings 
of  redemption  on  this  lost  and  guilty  world. 

^Let  every  man/  says  the  Apostle,  'prove  his 
own  work;^  and  here,  I  may  now  remark,  we 
have  an  admirable  test  whereby  to  try  the  genu- 
ineness of  our  faith  and  repentance.  If  our  only 
motive  for  abstaining  from  sin  lies  in  the  dread 
of  punishment,  our  obedience,  such  as  it  is, 
springs  not  from  the  love  of  God,  but  of  our- 
selves. It  is  entirely  selfish;  and  having  no  re- 
gard to  Him  whatever,  it  is  in  fact  but  a  con- 
tinual breaking  of  the  law,  ''Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy 
strength.^  Our  case  is  like  that  of  a  servant  who 
has  a  kind  master,  but  obeys,  not  because  he  loves 
his  master,  but  only  his  wages, — of  a  son,  who. 


68  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

but  for  the  dread  of  the  rod,  would  treat  a  father's 
wishes  with  insolent  contempt,  and  openly  defy 
his  authority.  How  can  God  set  any  value  on 
such  obedience  ?  He  Himself  has  answered  the 
question,  'A  son  honoureth  his  father,  and  a 
servant  liis  master;  if  then  I  be  a  father,  where 
is  mine  honour  ?  and  if  I  be  a  master,  where  is 
my  fear?  If  ye  offer  the  blind  for  sacrifice,  is  it 
not  evil  ?  and  if  ye  offer  the  lame  and  sick,  is  it 
not  evil  ?  Offer  it  now  unto  thy  governor;  will 
he  be  pleased  with  thee,  or  accept  thy  person, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts?'  The  test,  therefore, 
by  which  to  try  the  genuineness  of  our  faith  and 
repentance  lies  in  this  question.  Would  we  sin 
were  no  punishment  to  follow  ? — in  other  words, 
^  Shall  we  continue  in  sin  that  grace  may  abound  ?' 
So  Paul  puts  the  question;  and  how  does  he 
answer  it?  Filled  with  holy  horror  at  the  im- 
pious thought,  and  speaking  for  all  who  have 
undergone  a  saving  change,  he  replies,  ^  God  for- 
bid V  Does  his  emphatic  exclamation  find  an 
echo  in  our  breasts  ?     Does  sin  appear  to  us  so 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  69 

exceeding  sinful  that  we  would  not  commit  it 
though  we  had  read  our  names  in  the  book  of 
life,  and  felt  as  sure  of  heaven  as  if  already  there  ? 
Then,  notwithstanding  all  our  transgressions  and 
shortcomings,  we  may  take  the  comfort  of  these 
blessed  words,  ^Ye  are  washed,  ye  are  sancti- 
fied, ye  are  justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and 
by  the  Spirit  of  our  God/ 

These  views  of  sin  are  no  doubt  calculated  to 
humble  us  in  our  own  esteem.  Humble  us?  Let 
the  Spirit  of  our  God  open  our  eyes  fully  to  its 
exceeding  sinfulness,  and,  overwhelmed  by  a  sense 
of  guilt  and  shame,  we  shall  exclaim  with  Job,  ^  I 
abhor  myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes/ 
Some,  indeed,  vain  of  themselves  and  of  their 
own  doings,  maintain  a  self-complacent  spirit, 
nor  stand  abashed  in  the  presence  of  Him  before 
whose  glory,  as  a  man  screens  his  eyes  from  the 
blaze  of  the  sun,  angels  veil  their  faces.  How 
different  from  a  humble  Christianas  the  attitude 
of  yonder  Pharisee!  See  how,  like  the  bird  that, 
strutting  proudly  on  the  lawn,  unfurls  its  gaudy 


70  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

tail  to  display  its  beauties  to  the  sun,  he  presents 
himself  for  the  admiration  of  God  and  man.  ^  I 
fast/  he  says,  ^  twice  in  the  week,  I  give  tithes  of 
all  that  I  possess.  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as 
other  men,  or  even  as  this  publican/ 

But  it  is  no  evidence  that  we  are  abhorred  of 
God,  that  we  have  been  brought  to  abhor  our- 
selves ;  on  the  contrary,  '  The  sacrifices  of  God 
are  a  broken  spirit;  a  broken  and  a  contrite 
heart,  O  Lord,  thou  wilt  not  despise/  ^  1/  said 
St  Paul,  '^am  the  chief  of  sinners;^  '  I,^  said 
David,  ^was  as  a  beast  before  thee/  '  I,^  said 
Ezra,  '■  am  ashamed,  and  blush  to  lift  up  my  face 
to  thee,  O  my  God,  for  our  iniquities  are  in- 
creased over  our  heads,  and  our  trespass  is  gone 
up  unto  the  heavens;^  and  so  certainly  does  a 
man  grow  humbler  as  he  grows  holier,  that  it  is 
with  self-esteem  as  with  the  column  of  mercury 
in  the  tube  of  a  barometer — the  higher  w^e  ascend, 
it  sinks  the  lower.  What  more  striking  illustra- 
tion of  this  than  heaven  itself  affords?  There, 
purified  from  all  conceit  and  pride,  perfect  both  in 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  71 


humility  and  in  hoIiness_,  the  saints^  as  if  unwor- 
thy to  wear  on  their  heads  what  Jesus  won  on 
his  cross,  cast  their  crowns  at  his  feet.  There, 
with  eyes  death  has  purged,  in  purest  rays  serene, 
they  see  God — the  true  mirror  in  which  to  see 
ourseh^es.  For  as  the  best  way  to  estimate  the 
feebleness  of  a  taper  is  not  to  measure  the  small 
space  its  rays  illuminate,  but  to  hold  it  up  against 
the  sun,  and  see  its  flame  grow  dull  to  blackness 
in  the  blaze  of  his  burning  beams;  or  as  the  best 
way  to  correct  an  exaggerated  impression  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  pyramids  were  not  to  measure 
their  dimensions,  but  to  transport  them,  were  it 
possible,  to  the  foot  of  some  lofty  mountain,  the 
snow-crowned  monarch  of  the  Alps  or  Andes; 
so  the  best  way  of  measuring  ourselves  is  to 
measure  ourselves  with  God.  Seeing  our  little- 
ness in  His  greatness,  our  vile  ingratitude  in  His 
boundless  goodness,  the  impurity  of  our  hearts 
and  the  sinfulness  of  our  lives  in  His  ineffable 
and  unspotted  holiness,  it  is  easy  to  understand 
how  the  best  have  been  the  humblest  men ;  and 


12  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

how  one,  so  distinguished  for  piety  and  benefi- 
cence as  Job,  should  have  exclaimed,  ^  I  have 
heard  of  thee  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  but  now 
mine  eye  seeth  thee :  wherefore  I  abhor  myself, 
and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes/ 

If  this  attempt  to  set  forth  the  evil  of  sin  has 
awakened,  or  deepened,  any  sense  of  my  reader^s 
need  of  a  Saviour,  if  it  has  made  him  think  less 
of  himself  and  more  of  Christ,  it  is  well.  Self- 
abasement  before  God — the  pledge  that  the  pub- 
lican went  down  to  his  house  justified — has  cha- 
racterized not  Job  and  David,  not  prophets  and 
apostles  only,  but  the  elect  of  God  in  every  age  of 
the  church.  Read  the  life  of  any  eminent  saint ; 
and  from  the  glowing  panegyric  of  his  biographer 
turn  to  the  page  which  records  the  man's  opinion 
of  himself;  and  how  low  the  estimate,  how  differ- 
ent the  language !  The  two  seem  to  describe  dis- 
tinct persons  ;  yet,  dissimilar  as  are  the  portraits, 
one  man  sat  for  both.  What  hard  things  he  has 
written  against  himself,  what  confessions  of  guilt 
and  sin  he  has  left,  at  whose  death  men  exclaimed. 


THE  EVIL  OF  SIN.  73 

'  A  prince  and  a  great  man  has  fallen  this  day  in 
IsraeP — by  whose  grave  a  weeping  church  has 
raised  the  cry^  ^  My  father^  my  father!  the  chariots 
of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof/  For  example^ 
how  did  Knox^  the  man  above  all  other  men  whose 
name,  as  the  greatest  and  bravest  of  her  sons_,  is 
dear  to  Scotland,  regard  himself,  estimate  the 
mighty  work  he  had  lived  to  do  ?  The  poorest, 
vilest,  most  useless^  never  lay  lower  at  the  foot  of 
the  cross — there,  tempted  to  indulge  in  self-satis- 
faction, he  passed  the  last  night  of  his  life  in  mor- 
tal conflict  with  the  enemy  of  souls,  conquering, 
though  the  battle  lasted  through  all  its  weary 
hours,  by  the  blood  of  the  cross.  And  who,  to 
quote  but  another  case,  has  not  heard  of  John 
Wesley — how  much,  not  England  only,  but  the 
whole  world  owes  to  him,  to  his  poetry  and  his 
piety,  to  his  love  for  Christ  and  love  for  souls,  to 
his  burning  zeal  and  apostolic  labours  ?  With 
his  praise  in  all  the  churches,  and  a  fame  spread 
wide  as  the  world  itself,  what  estimate  did  he  form 
of  himself?  what  hopes  sustained  him  in  a  dying 


74  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

hour?  ^  I  have  been  reflecting/  he  said,  ^  on  my 
past  life;  I  have  been  wandering  up  and  down  be- 
tween fifty  and  sixty  years^  endeavouring  in  my 
poor  way  to  do  a  Httle  good  to  my  fellow-creatures ; 
and  what  have  I  to  trust  to  for  salvation  ?  I  can 
see  nothing  which  I  have  done  or  suffered  that 
will  bear  looking  at.  I  have  no  other  plea  than 
this — 

"  I  the  chief  of  sinners  am, 
But  Jesus  died  for  me." ' 


IV. 

MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SAVE  HIMSELF. 

'^  I  ^O  a  young  man  who  came,  saying;,  '  Good 
Master_,  what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal 
life?^  our  Lord  replied_,  '  Go  thy  way,  sell  w^hatso- 
ever  thou  hast_,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt 
have  treasure  in  heaven ;  and  come,  take  up  the 
cross,  and  follow  me.'  A  hard  saying  that !  To 
an  aged  saint  a  very  difficult  duty, — how  much 
more  to  a  babe  in  Christ,  to  one  but  entering, 
if  entering,  on  the  Christian  life!  It  is  not  raw 
recruits  and  beardless  boys,  but  veterans,  men 
inured  to  war,  to  the  flash  of  bayonet  and  the 
roar  of  cannon,  that  generals  send  to  the  front — 
where  bullets  are  flying,  and  men  are  falling 
thickest.     What  man  would  order  a  sailor  boy. 


76  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

the  first  day  he  trode  the  deck_,  to  climb  the 
shrouds,  and  reef  the  topsail  in  a  storm^  when  the 
ship,  caught  in  a  hurricane,  was  plunging  and  tear- 
ing through  the  sea  ?  Yet  so  our  Lord  dealt  with 
this  youth — putting  him  to  a  trial  which  the  most 
advanced  Christian  would  find  it  hard  to  bear. 

Let  us  fancy  ourselves  in  his  circumstances. 
What  a  surprise  to  be  called,  all  of  a  sudden,  to 
part  with  our  whole  property,  to  leave  home  with 
its  many  tender  ties,  the  scene  of  happy  memories, 
the  grave  of  beloved  parents,  the  society  of  kind 
friends,  the  respect  of  the  world,  and  the  re- 
putation of  wealth,  to  descend,  at  one  step,  from 
affluence  and  comfort,  to  follow  one  himself  so 
poor  that  he  had  no  place  where  to  lay  his  head  ! 
We  cannot  fancy  the  shock  and  the  recoil  we 
ourselves  should  feel,  and  not  wonder  that  our 
Lord  laid  a  load  so  heavy  on  a  back  so  young. 

But  the  apparent  harshness  in  this  case,  as  in 
many  others,  ceases  when  we  know  all  its  cir- 
cumstances. What  looks  cruel  comes  out  then 
as   the  truest  kindness.     We  should   make  the 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF.     77 

greatest  mistakes  if  we  pronounced  judgment  on 
a  remedy  in  ignorance  of  the  disease  it  was  meant 
to  cure.  You  enter_,  for  example,  the  theatre  of 
an  hospital.  A  pale,  weak,  wasted  sufferer,  with 
terror  and  anxiety  in  his  face,  is  borne  in,  and  laid 
on  a  blood-stained  table.  His  arms  are  pinioned ; 
and  into  the  quivering  flesh  of  him  who  needs 
rest  rather  than  pain  the  surgeon  buries  a  knife ; 
— deaf  to  his  entreaties,  unmoved  by  his  groans. 
This  seems  cruel,  but  it  is  not  so.  We  have  only 
to  see  the  morbid  mass  separated  from  a  form  it 
had  long  tortured  with  pain,  and  was  hurrying 
to  an  untimely  grave,  to  see  that  the  knife  was 
both  in  a  kind  and  skilful  hand— that  there  was 
need  of  the  knife,  and  life  in  the  knife.  Even 
so,  on  turning  to  St  Matthew^s  account  of  this 
case,  our  Lord's  apparent  harshness  changes  into 
true  kindness;  all  which  seemed  stern  and  hard 
entirely  vanishing.  He,  who  came  to  Jesus  seek- 
ing eternal  life,  had  no  sense  of  his  own  inability 
to  save  himself;  but  fancied  that  he  had  only  to 
be  told  how,  and  he  could  do  it.     In  his  account 


78  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

of  the  transaction_,  Mark  represents  him  saying, 
'  Good  Master,  what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal 
life  ? ' — a  form  of  the  question  not  very  different 
from  the  jailor's,  when,  seizing  a  light,  he  burst 
into  the  dungeon,  and  cast  himself  at  the  apostles' 
feet,  to  cry,  ^  Sirs,  what  shall  1  do  to  be  saved  ? ' 
Had  that  been  the  young  man's  question,  spring- 
ing up  in  his  heart  as  in  the  jailor's,  from  feeling 
himself  lost, — a  poor,  lost,  helpless  sinner, — this, 
doubtless,  had  been  Christ's  gracious  and  quick 
reply,  ^  Believe  in  me,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved.' 
But  the  question,  as  more  fully  given  by  the 
Evangelist  Matthew,  is  not  simply,  ^  What  shall 
I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?'  but — a  very  different 
one — ^  What  good  tking  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal 
life  ? '  Eternal  life  was  a  prize  which,  with  some 
directions  from  Christ,  he  deemed  himself  able  to 
win.  Nor  any  wonder;  for  such  was  his  ignor- 
ance of  the  nature  of  sin,  of  his  own  guilt  and 
weakness,  and  how,  spiritual  in  its  nature,  the 
law  of  God  is  violated  as  well  by  desires  as  by 
deeds,   by  wishes  as  by  works,  that  to   the   re- 


.  MAA'S  INABILITY  TO  SAVE  HIMSELF.     79 

petition  of  the  commandments  he  replied^  with 
the  most  perfect  self-complacency;  ^  Master,  all 
these  things  have  I  kept  from  my  youth.' 

What  is  to  be  done  in  this  case  ?  It  re- 
sembles that  of  one  who,  drugged  with  opium, 
has  sunk  into  a  deadly  stupor ;  and  to  whom  a 
stimulant  has  been,  administered  without  any 
good  effect.  The  light  is  flashed  on  his  dull, 
dilated  pupils,  but  in  vain ;  his  pulse  beats  weaker, 
his  breathing  comes  thicker,  his  lethargy  grows 
more  and  more  profound.  Another  and  stronger 
stimulant  is  required.  Unless  he  is  roused  he 
dies.  So  with  this  young  man.  He  must  be 
awoke  to  a  sense  of  his  real  condition.  He 
perishes  otherwise,  in  his  ignorance  and  sins. 
His  case  requires  the  strongest,  and  his  salvation 
will  justify  the  most  painful  remedies.  For  never, 
till  he  sees  that  he  cannot  save  himself,  will  he 
repair  to  Jesus,  and  fall  at  His  feet,  to  cry,  '  Lord, 
save  mc ;  I  perish  ! ' 

It  was  for  that  blessed  purpose  our  Lord  bade 
this  man  lay  down  the  world,  and   take  up  the 


8o  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

cross ;  His  object  being  to  make  the  man  feel  his 
need  of  Divine  assistance  and  a  new  heart ;  and 
that^  for  all  his  talk  about  another  worlds  he  was 
glued  to  this  one.  But  this  could  only  be  accom- 
plished by  putting  the  man  to  a  trial.  When  in 
a  calm^  sunny  day  the  ship  rises  and  falls  on  the 
billows,  she  seems  as  free  as  the  waves  she  rides — 
nor  till  the  wind  rises  and  swells  her  drooping 
sails,  and,  making  no  progress,  she  plunges  and 
pitches  like  a  steed  under  spur  and  rein,  do  we 
discover  that  beneath  the  water,  unseen,  and  till 
then  unsuspected,  an  anchor,  with  its  iron  arms, 
grasps  the  sand,  chaining  her  to  the  earth.  So, 
also,  it  is,  when,  turning  her  eye  to  the  sun,  and 
inspired  with  some  love  of  freedom,  the  eagle, 
spreading  out  her  wings  and  springing  from  the 
perch,  attempts  to  fly,  but  has  hardly  mounted 
ere  she  drops  down  again,  that  we  discover  the 
noble  bird  to  be  a  miserable  captive,  and  see  the 
chain  that  binds  her  to  the  earth.  And  our 
blessed  Lord  bade  this  man  break  loose  from  the 
world,  and  mount  to  heaven,  to  teach  him  by  his 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SAVE  HIMSELF.    8i 

very  failure  that  he  could  not ;  that  he  had  no 
power  to  save  himself;  that  salvation  is  not  of 
bloody  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh_,  nor  of  the  will 
of  man — but  of  God  :  that^  in  his  own  words  to 
Nicodemus^  ^  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and 
of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of 
God/  And  that  doctrine  I  now  proceed  to  illus- 
trate. 

This  doctrine,  I  may,  by  way  of  introduction, 
observe,  is  evident  from  this,  that  the  saved  are 
all  debtors  to  the  free  choice  and  grace  of  God. 

A  man  of  taste,  wishing  to  stock  a  garden, 
waits  till  the  seed  he  sows  has  sprung,  and  the 
plants  that  spring  from  it  have  flowered;  and 
then,  rejecting  the  rest,  he  selects  for  his  parterres 
the  flowers  of  fairest  hue  and  finest  forms.  To 
stock  an  orchard,  he  pursues  a  similar  course; 
waiting  till  time  has  proved  their  character,  he 
selects  the  best  trees,  leaving  such  as  are  barren, 
or  produce  only  inferior  fruit,  to  be  burned  as  fuel 
— the  only  thing  they  are  fit  for.  Now,  if  man 
saves,   or  is  capable  of  saving,  himself,   it  were 

6 


82  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE: 

reasonable  to  expect  that  in  bestowing  on  men 
everlasting  life,  God  would  have  pursued  a  similar 
course.  But  amid  all  the  dark  mysteries  that  in- 
vest this  subject,  it  is  plain  that  He  did  not.  It 
is  not  on  our  merits,  but  on  His  mercy,  the 
choice  turns ;  else  what  does  the  Apostle  mean 
who  says,  ^  Not  by  works  of  righteousness  that 
we  have  done,  but  according  to  his  mercy  he 
saved  us^  by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  He  shed  on 
us  abundantly  through  Jesus  Christ?^  Not  wait- 
ing till  time  has  developed  their  character,  as  time 
does  that  of  flowers  and  trees,  God  chooses  those 
who  are  to  be  heirs  of  grace  before  their  character 
is  or  can  be  formed — before  their  baptism,  even 
before  their  birth;  nor  only  before  their  birth, 
but  before  that  of  time  itself — ere  there  was  a  man 
to  sin,  or  a  world  to  sin  in ;  ere  sun  shone,  or 
any  angel  sung.  ^  Blessed,^  said  Paul,  with  ador- 
ing gratitude,  ^  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus,  who  hath  blessed  us  with  all  spiritual  bless- 
ings in  heavenly  places  in  Christ,  according  as  he 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF.    83 

hath  chosen  us  in  him  lefore  the  foundation  of 
the  world.^  Chosen  us,  be  it  observed,  not  be- 
cause we  are  holy;  but  making  our  holiness  to 
be,  not  the  cause,  but  the  consequence  of  His 
choice — not  the  root  it  springs  from,  but  the  fruit 
it  bears;  'chosen  us,' he  adds,  *  that  we  should 
be  holy  and  without  blame  before  him  in  love/ 

This  truth — humbling  to  our  pride,  but  placing 
our  hopes  on  an  immovable  foundation — receives 
very  remarkable  and  distinct  expression  in  the 
reason  which  God  assigned  to  Paul  for  requiring 
him  to  remain  in  Corinth.  Steeped  in  the  gross- 
est idolatry,  proverbial  above  any  other  in  the 
world  for  unbridled  licentiousness,  the  Apostle, 
who  had  succeeded  in  converting  but  a  handful 
of  its  inhabitants,  was  about  to  leave  that  city ; 
thinking  that  there  no  more  good  was  to  be  done. 
Fancy  his  astonishment  when  God,  appearing  to 
him  in  a  vision,  said,  ''Be  not  afraid,  Paul,  but 
speak,  and  hold  not  thy  peace,  for  I  am  with  thee, 
and  no  man  shall  set  on  thee  to  hurt  thee;  for  T 
have  much  people  in  this  city' — serving  now  at 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


heathen  altars_,  slaves  now  of  the  grossest  vices, 
nevertheless  they  are  my  people;  and  here  you 
are  to  abide,  from  these  vile  dust-heaps  to  gather 
out  my  jewels,  from  these  dark  depths  of  sin  to 
bring  up  my  pearls — they  know  not  me,  but  I 
know  them — they  have  not  chosen  me,  but  I  have 
chosen  them;  not  for  their  merits^  but  out  of  my 
mercy  chosen  them  before  the  foundation  of  Cor- 
inth, or  of  the  world  itself.  If  God^s  ways  are 
equal,  unless  there  was  one  rule  for  the  sinners  of 
Corinth  and  another  for  us,  none,  therefore,  are 
chosen  from  regard  to  their  merits,  or  saved 
through  their  own  ability — saK^ation  being  all  of 
grace,  pure  and  undeserved,  as  was  once  admir- 
ably brought  out  by  a  humble,  unlettered  Chris- 
tian. Strong  in  faith,  though  not  expert  in  argu- 
ment, she  answered  the  cavils  of  some  who  tried 
to  puzzle  her,  as  he  who  said  to  the  Pharisees, 
^This  I  know,  that  I  once  was  blind,  but  now  I 
see/ — she  replied,  'This  I  know,  that  I  never 
should  have  chosen  God,  unless  God  had  first 
chosen  me ! ' 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF.    85 

I  remark  that  our  inability  to  save  ourselves 
is  evident  from  these_,  among  many  other  con- 
siderations : — 

I.  We  cannot  plead  guiltless  of  sin.  Guilt- 
less ?  What  man  so  ignorant  as  to  refuse  his  as- 
sent to  the  words  of  John,  ^  If  we  should  say  that 
we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves — we  make 
God  a  liar,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us  ?'  In  yonder 
temple,  from  which  the  crowd  is  rushing,  priests, 
scribes,  Pharisees,  old  and  young,  hustling  each 
other  in  their  haste,  and  leaving  but  our  Lord, 
who  stoops  writing  on  the  sanded  floor,  and  a 
woman  He  has  saved,  for  time  at  least — let  us 
hope,  she  going  to  sin  no  more,  for  eternity — 
who  had  remained  behind  ?  Why  this  hot  haste 
from  the  house  of  God  ?  No  fire  has  caught  its 
beams ;  nor  are  its  walls  of  mighty  stones,  rocked 
by  an  earthquake,  cracking  to  their  fall.  Nothing 
but  this  has  happened — a  guilty  woman  has  been 
dragged  before  Christ  for  doom ;  and  He  has  pro- 
nounced the  doom,  but  in  this  unexpected  form, 
'  Let  him  that  is  without  sin  cast  the  first  stone 


86  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 


at  her !  ^  Him  that  is  without  sin  ? — no  hand  is 
mouldering,  nor  shall  any  moulder  in  the  dust  to 
meet  that  condition,  and  execute  the  fatal  sen- 
tence. For  however  irreproachable  we  appear  in 
the  sight  of  men,  and  more  than  irreproachable, 
respected,  esteemed,  and  praised  we  may  be  of 
men,  where  in  pew  or  pulpit  is  he  who  could  hold 
up  his  hands  before  God,  and  say,  ^  These  hands 
are  clean  !  ^  We  have  all  sinned  ;  and  since  spi- 
ritual as  well  as  temporal  death  has  passed  on  all 
men  because  all  have  sinned,  we  are  as  unable 
to  save  ourselves  as  a  dead  man  to  leave  his  cof- 
fin, and  return  with  the  mourners  who  have  carried 
him  to  the  grave. 

1.  Our  utmost  efforts  fall  short  of  a  perfect 
service.  Such  God^s  law  requires;  but  who  has 
ever  reached,  or  even  approached  it? — who  has 
satisfied  the  law,  as  summed  up  in  these  grand 
and  lofty  words,  'Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind  ;  and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself?' 
Not  St  Paul.    He  says,  'When  I  would  do  good. 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF.    %•] 

evil  is  present  with  me. — That  which  I  wouldj  I 
do  not,  and  that  which  I  would  not_,  that  I  do.' 
And  where  Paul  failed,  who  can  hope  to  succeed  ? 
To  him  who,  in  the  splendour  of  his  gifts  and 
graces,  shone  without  an  equal  when  he  lived,  nor 
has  had  any  successor  since  he  died,  dare  any  of 
us  say.  Stand  aside,  Paul,  I  am  holier  than  thou  ? 
But  suppose  we  could,  what  of  that  ?  The  robe 
that,  blanched  by  dews  and  rain  and  sunshine, 
seems  so  white  beside  the  mould  some  hoary  sex- 
ton flings  from  an  open  grave,  turns  dull  and 
dingy  laid  on  a  bank  of  snow ;  and  who,  though 
he  may  seem  an  angel  in  the  company  of  repro- 
bates, of  the  profligate  and  profane,  could  stand 
comparison,  side  by  side,  with  God's  Son  or  God's 
holy  law  ?  Whom  would  not  the  contrast  humble  ? 
— from  whose  lips  call  forth  the  language  both  of 
confession  and  prayer  ? — our  confession.  Job's,  ^  If 
I  wash  myself  in  snow-water  and  make  my  hands 
never  so  clean,  yet  shalt  thou  plunge  me  in  the 
ditch  and  mine  own  clothes  shall  abhor  me' — 
that  our  confession,  and  this,  the  Psalmist's,  our , 


88  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

prayer_, '  Enter  not  into  judgment  with  thy  servant_, 
for  in  thy  sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justified  !^ 

3.  As  sinners  we  are  without  excuse.  Ere 
the  judge  condemns  a  man  found  guilty  of  a 
capital  offence^  he  asks  him  what  he  can  say 
why  sentence  of  death  should  not  be  passed  on 
him.  And  were  He  who  i?  net  willing  that  any 
should  perish^  but  wherever  He  condemns  '  con- 
demns reluctant,'  so  to  deal  with  us^  what  should 
^;c  say  to  excuse  our  sins  and  escape  their  punish- 
ment? If  the  plea  avails_,  we  save  ourselves; 
otherwise  we  cannot.  Now  men  make  excuses 
to  their  conscience,  and  also  to  their  fellow-men ; 
but  let  us  try  what  value  these  would  have  at  the 
judgment-seat  of  a  righteous  God. 

First,  They  plead  sorrow.  But  though  their 
sorrow  were  as  deep,  and  true,  and  godly,  as  their 
continuing  in  sin  proves  it  is  not,  of  what  worth 
is  this  plea  in  the  eye  of  the  law  ?  Some  wretch 
by  his  crimes  brings  himself  to  the  bar  of  his 
countrv — and  there,  pale,  and  sorrowful,  and  sad 
enough    many   have    looked  —  but,    though    he 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF.    89 

pleads  for  his  life  with  tears,  sorrow  never  baulked 
the  gallows  of  its  due.  Waste  and  riotous  living 
have  brought  many  to  bankruptcy_,  but  sorrow 
never  satisfied  the  demands  of  defrauded  and  in- 
dignant creditors.  Sorrow  acquits  no  criminals : 
sorrow  pays  no  debts  :  sorrow  heals  no  wounds : 
it  never  restored  to  injured  woman  her  fair  name 
and  character_,  nor  recalled  to  life  the  dead_,  whose 
gray  hairs  a  prodigal  had  brought  down  to  the 
grave.  Sorrow  cannot  repair  the  wrongs  we  do 
to  our  fellow- creatures,  still  less  those  we  do  to 
God.  ^  Offer  it  now  to  thy  governor,  will  he  be 
pleased  with  thee,  or  accept  thy  person  ?  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts .^ 

Second,  They  plead  that  they  have  not  been 
great  sinners.  This  was  the  Pharisee^s  plea — ^  I 
thank  thee,  O  God,  that  I  am  not  as  other  men, 
nor  even  as  this  publican.'  What  that  was  worth, 
we  know  from  this,  that  the  poor  publican,  who 
stood  afar  off,  and  beat  on  his  breast,  and  cried, 
'  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner/  went  down  to 
his   house  justified;    but   not   the   other.      The 


90  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

Pharisee^s  was  not  PauPs  plea.  Glorying  only  in 
the  cross  of  Christ,  he  called  himself  the  least  of 
saints,  and  the  chief  of  sinners.  Nor  is  it  a  plea 
to  which  any  court  of  justice  would  attach  the 
slightest  value.  Think  of  a  man  found  guilty  of 
theft  pleading  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  go 
free,  because,  when  he  stole  your  purse,  he  did 
not  take  your  life  !  Worthless  anywhere,  such  a 
plea  is  nowhere  so  worthless  as  at  the  bar  where 
Divine  justice  sits  enthroned ;  and  all  who  reject 
the  Saviour,  rejecting  mercy,  shall  be  tried  by  a 
law  whose  stern  terms  are  these,  ^  Cursed  is  every 
one  who  continueth  not  in  all  things  written  in 
the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them/ 

Third,  They  plead  the  strength  of  temptation. 
This  plea,  like  the  others — a  refuge  of  lies,  is 
neither  new  nor  true.  It  is  not  true;  for  who 
can  deny  having  committed  many  sins  they  might 
have  avoided :  yielded  to  many  temptations  they 
might  have  resisted?  It  is  not  new;  having  been 
tried  in  Eden,  and  found  wanting.  ^Hast  thou,^ 
said  God  to  Adam,  ^  eaten  of  the  tree  whereof  I 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SAVE  HIMSELF.    91 

commanded  thee  that  thoa  shouldst  not  eat  ? '' 
To  excuse  himself,  he  pleaded  temptation — ^  The 
woman  whom  thou  gavest  to  be  with  me,  she 
gave  me  of  the  tree^  and  I  did  eat/  ^What  is 
this  that  thou  hast  done?^  said  God,  turning 
next  to  Eve.  Taking  up  the  same  ground,  she  also 
pleads  temptation  as  her  excuse — ^The  serpent 
beguiled  me,  and  I  did  eat/  Vain  subterfuge; 
Eden  was  lost,  and  our  world  buried  in  the  ruins 
of  the  fall !  Now  the  plea  which  did  not  excuse 
their  sin  will  still  less  excuse  ours.  For  however 
we  may  plead  its  strength,  there  is  no  temptation 
we  might  not  resist — in  the  hottest  furnace  walk 
unhurt,  and  go  dryshod  through  the  deepest  sea. 
^My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee,^  is  God^s  own 
sure  and  blessed  word;  and  however  hard  the 
fight  or  heavy  the  burden,  we  had  but  to  seek  His 
grace,  to  boast  with  His  servant,  Paul — '  I  can 
do  all  things  through  Christ,  which  strengthen- 
eth  me.^  Never  has  it  been  for  want  of  faithful- 
ness on  His  part,  but  of  faith  on  ours,  that  this 
His  grand  promise  has  seemed  to  fail — ^When 


92  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

thou  passest  through  the  waters^  I  will  be  with 
thee ;  and  through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not  over- 
flow thee :  when  thou  walkest  through  the  fire, 
thou  shalt  not  be  burned ;  neither  shall  the  flame 
kindle  upon  thee/ 

Fourth,  We  are  of  ourselves  unable  to  embrace 
the  salvation  which  God  has  provided.  ^Believe 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved,^  is  indeed  glad  tidings;  but  faith  itself  is 
the  gift  of  God.  Some,  it  is  true,  fancy  that  it  is 
an  easy  thing  to  believe,  and  that  we  can  turn 
our  minds,  as  our  steps  when  they  have  brought 
us  to  the  brink  of  a  precipice — turn  our  hearts,  as 
the  steersman  the  ship,  which,  by  a  prompt  move- 
ment of  the  helm,  he  guides  clear  of  the  thunder- 
ing reef,  and  sends  away  in  safety,  ploughing 
through  the  foam,  on  another  tack.  But  a  lost 
sinner — whose  proper  figure  is  a  vessel  without 
masts  or  rudder,  drifting  at  the  mercy  of  the  wild 
waves  on  a  rocky  shore — has  no  power  of  his  own 
to  turn  from  sin  and  the  error  of  his  ways.  Were 
it  otherwise,  our  Lord's  words  had  been  literally, 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF.    93 


universally  fulfilled — ^  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will 
draw  all  men  after  me/  Are  they  so?  Alas! 
in  how  many  churches  is  He  lifted  up  every  Sab- 
bath, nor  draws  one?  —  offered  every  Sabbath 
only  to  be  wickedly  rejected?- — his  servants, 
grieved  at  man^s  mad  obstinacy,  returning  to 
their  Master  with  the  old  sorrowful  complaint, 
'  No  man  hath  believed  my  report,  and  to  none  is 
the  arm  of  the  Lord  revealed !  ^  Could  man 
change  his  heart  and  habits,  it  is  incredible  that 
any  should  perish  with  God^s  word  in  their  hands ; 
not  as  certainly,  but  more  certainly,  than  such  as 
never  had  the  offer  of  a  Saviour.  Here  is  a  man 
who  knows  that  if  he  goes  to  Christ,  he  will  go 
to  heaven;  and  if  not,  that  he  shall  be  sent  to 
hell — who  knows  that  Jesus  is  the  way,  the  only 
way  to  true  happiness  and  holiness  in  this  world, 
and  salvation  in  the  next — who  knows  that  he 
must  die,  and  that  in  the  hour  of  robustest  health, 
there  is  but  a  step  between  him  and  the  grave — 
who  knows,  therefore,  that  if  he  put  off  salvation 
for  a  single   hour,  that   hour  may  be  a  whole 


94  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

eternity  too  late — when^  with  all  those  powerful 
motives  to  turn  this  moment  to  Christy  that  man 
stands  unmoved,  how  true  the  words  of  Jesus, 
^  No  man  can  come  unto  me  except  the  Father 
which  hath  sent  me  draw  him  !  ^ 

No  doubt_,  it  is  in  the  power  of  all,  after  a 
fashion,  to  use  the  means  of  grace — by  that  I 
mean  to  read  the  Bible,  and  say  their  prayers, 
and  go  to  church.  But,  oh,  what  need  for  prayer 
that  a  Divine  power  may  accompany  these,  since, 
without  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they 
will  be  found  to  harden  rather  than  to  soften  the 
heart !  Experience  proves  this ;  and  that  he  is 
less  likely  to  be  saved  who  has  sat  from  childhood 
under  a  Gospel  ministry,  than  one  on  whose  eyes 
^  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God  ^  opens 
with  the  novelty,  and  fi'eshness,  and  astonishment, 
a  man,  born  and  brought  up  in  a  coal-pit,  would 
feel  when  gazing  for  the  first  time  on  the  star- 
spangled  sky.  Wesley  and  Whitefield  reaped 
their  largest  harvests  on  neglected  fields ; — those, 
adown  whose  begrimed  cheeks,  as  they  preached. 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF.    95 

the  starting  tears  ran  white  channels,  being 
miners  and  peasants  and  colliers,  men  who  heard 
the  terrors  of  hell  and  the  love  of  God,  for  the 
first  time  in  their  lives,  set  fully  and  affectionately 
before  them.  The  heart  grows  callous  through 
unsanctified  familiarity  with  Divine  things — even 
with  danger  itself.  And  thus,  as  the  veteran  of 
many  a  battle-field  waits  the  advance  of  the  foe 
and  the  crush  of  musketry  with  a  calm,  intrepid 
bearing,  in  like  manner  familiarity  with  spiritual 
danger  begets  such  spiritual  indifference  that  the 
law  thunders  and  a  Saviour  entreats  in  vain — 
making  it  evident  that  men  are  no  more  to  be 
driven  from  sin  by  the  fear  of  hell,  than  drawn 
from  it  by  the  hopes  of  heaven.  Put  this  to  the 
test.  Let  the  subjects  of  our  experiment  be  a 
little  child  and  an  old  man.  How  easy  it  is  to 
awaken  the  fears,  and  touch  the  conscience,  and 
bring  tears  to  the  eyes  of  childhood  !  But  those 
only  who  have  tried  it,  as  I  have  done,  can  know, 
and  those  only  who  know  it  can  believe,  how 
difficult  it  is  to  reach  the  conscience  and  shake 


96  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

the  confidence  of  graceless  and  gray-haired  age. 
I  am  not  depreciating  the  means  of  grace.  Far 
from  it.  On  the  contrary,  I  recommend  a  dili- 
gent_,  but  a  devout,  use  of  them_,  with  earnest 
prayer  that  through  an  outpouring  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  the  means  may  be  made  the  channels  of 
grace.  Without  that^  the  church  we  attend,  and 
the  sermons  we  hear,  and  the  Bible  we  read,  and 
the  sacraments  we  partake  of,  will  but  harden 
our  hearts — even  as  familiarity  with  funerals  is 
apt  to  make  us  think  not  more  but  less  of  death, 
until,  often  treading  that  path  which  others  shall 
one  day  tread  with  us,  we  can  carry  a  neighbour 
to  the  gates  of  another  world,  and  leave  him 
there,  to  return  to  the  business  and  pleasures  of 
this  without  one  suitable  and  serious  thought. 

In  closing  this  chapter  let  me  remark.  The 
deeper  our  sense  of  man^s  inability  to  save  him- 
self, we  are  the  more  likely  to  be  saved.  Do  not 
despair.  Deliverance  is  often  nearest  when  it 
seems  most  distant.  *"  Man's  extremity  is  God's 
opportunity,'  is  one  true  proverb     ^The  darkest 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF,    97 

hour  is  before  the  dawn/  is  another  :  and  many 
a  poor,  distressed  sinner^s  experience  has  been 
that  of  a  crew  tossed  for  long  days  on  the  stormy 
deep.  They  had  lost  their  reckoning ;  enveloped 
in  an  impenetrable  mist,  their  poor  bark  was 
driving  they  knew  not  where :  at  length  they 
catch  the  dreaded  roar  of  breakers ;  louder  and 
louder  they  are  heard  thundering  on  a  rugged 
shore.  Unable  to  do  anything  to  save  them- 
selves and  avert  a  fatal  issue,  their  hearts  sink 
within  them,  when  suddenly,  as  if  God^s  own 
hand  had  drawn  aside  the  curtain,  the  fog-bank 
parts  to  show  them  a  spacious  harbour,  opening 
out  its  arms  to  receive  them  on  the  bosom  of  its 
calm  blue  waters.  So  the  hope  of  Christ  has 
opened  to  many  who,  finding  that  they  had  no 
hope  in  themselves,  were  crying,  ^  Sirs,  what 
must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  ^  A  paradox  though  it 
seems,  there  is  greatest  hope  when  our  case  looks 
most  hopeless.  '  The  Lord,^  it  is  said,  ^  shall 
judge   his    people,    and    repent    himself    for   his 

servants  when  he  seeth  that  their  power  is  gone, 
7 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE, 


and  that  there  is  none  shut  up  or  left/  So  it 
fell  out  with  Abraham.  Not  till  he  and  Isaac 
had  climbed  the  mountain,,  not  till  the  altar  was 
built  and  the  victim  bound;,  not  till  with  a  last 
long  look^  and  a  last  warm  kiss,  and  a  last  sad 
farewell,  the  father  had  raised  his  arm  to  strike, 
was  that  arm  arrested — did  the  angel,  hovering 
over  the  scene,  descend  to  stay  the  bloody  sacri- 
fice. It  was  so  likewise  when  Israel  was  captive 
in  the  land  of  Babylon,  and  their  harps  hung 
mute  on  its  willow  trees,  and  God^s  own  holy 
house  lay  in  desolate,  silent  ruins.  Their  deliver- 
ance never  seemed  farther  distant  than  when 
most  near.  Never  was  their  captivity  more 
galling,  their  misery  so  insulted,  or  their  hu- 
miliation so  complete,  as  on  that  night,  when 
Belshazzar,  mad  with  wine  and  wickedness,  called 
for  the  vessels  of  the  sanctuary,  and  turning  them 
into  drinking  cups,  caroused  with  his  wives  and 
concubines,  his  princes  and  his  lords.  Yet  that 
was  the  very  night  on  which  the  tyrant^s  doom 
was  written,  and  the  deliverance  of  the  captives 


MAN'S  INABILITY  TO  SA  VE  HIMSELF.    99 

begun.      Israel   by  the   shores  of  the  Red   Sea ; 
the  three  Hebrew  martyrs  in  the  fiery  furnace ; 
Daniel  cast  into  the  lions'  den ;  Peter  in  chains 
and  asleep  in  prison — these  cases,  all  admirable 
correctives  to  despair^  show  us  how   God   often 
waits  till  things  are  at  the  worst.     He  saves  at 
the  uttermost — when  with   all   power  all  pride  is 
gone.     Nor  shall  these  words  have  been  written 
in  vain_,  if  any  of  my  readers_,  convinced  of  their 
inability  to  save  themselves^  shall  turn  to  Christ 
— like  the  disciples  when^  abandoning  all   further 
effort  to   keep   their   boat  afloat  and    reach   the 
landj  they  threw   up  their  oars_,  to  throw  them- 
selves on  the  power  and  love  of  Jesus_,  and  wake 
Him  with  the  cry,  '  Master,  carest  thou  not  that 
we  perish  ?  ^     Now  He  does  care  that  we  should 
not  perish.     He  died  that  we  might  not  perish. 
And   He  who  died   for  us,  with  love  time  can 
neither  change  nor  cool,  longs   to  save  us.     His 
arms   open   to   embrace   us.      Heaven    opens    to 
admit  us.     Angels  stand  ready  to  rejoice  over  us. 
So  venturing,  as  well  we  may,  on  Christ's  bound- 


loo  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

less  power  and  boundless  kindness^  let  us  fall  at 
His  feet  to  cry,  '  Lord,  save  me,  I  perish  ! ' — or 
with  the  man  of  old,  ''Lord,  I  believe;  help  thou 
mine  unbelief!^  —  for  whosoever  cometh  unto 
Him,  He  will  in  no  wise  cast  out;  and  whosoever 
believeth  in  Him  shall  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life. 


V. 

GOD'S  GIFT  TO  MAN. 

T  T  AS  it  ever  occurred  to  the  reader  to  mark^  in 
almost  numberless  passages  in  the  Bible,  the 
half-magical  power  of  the  little  word  ^  but  ^  ?  Like 
an  enchanter's  wand,  it  suddenly  turns  light  to 
darkness,  or  darkness  to  light;  makes  the  dweller 
in  dust  to  awake  and  sing,  or  fills  the  festive  hall 
with  horror,  as  if  a  handwriting  from  heaven  had 
appeared  on  the  wall.  After  considerable  trouble. 
King  David's  plot  against  Uriah  succeeds  at  last ; 
the  impracticable  soldier  will  appear  no  more  in 
Jerusalem;  Bathsheba  is  brought  to  the  palace; 
and  amid  the  festivity  and  gladness  of  a  royal 
wedding;,  the  ugly  parts  of  the  business  seem  in  a 
fair  way  to  be  forgotten.     Suddenly,  however,  as 


1 02  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

we  read  the  history^  the  whole  scene  is  bathed  in 
gloom ;  a  portentous  darkness  comes  down_, — all 
at  the  bidding  of  the  word  *  but/  which  demands 
the  insertion  of  a  little  extra  clause  in  the  narra- 
tive— ^  But  the  thing  that  David  had  done  dis- 
pleased the  Lord/  In  another  place  we  have  a 
striking  sketch  of  a  Syrian  warrior^ — a  picture  of  a 
prosperous  man  into  which  every  brilliant  colour 
seems  to  enter.  'Now  Naaman_,  captain  of  the 
host  of  the  king  of  Syria,,  was  a  great  man  with 
his  master,  and  honourable,  because  by  him  the 
Lord  had  given  deliverance  unto  Syria  ;  he  was 
also  a  mighty  man  of  valour.'  At  this  point, 
however,  the  painter  seems  suddenly  to  dip  his 
brush  in  ink,  and  dash  it  remorselessly  against  the 
brilliant  colouring;  and  in  our  English  Bible  it  is 
at  the  bidding  of  the  same  little  word  the  sudden 
change  is  made — '  but  he  was  a  leper .^  In  the 
concise  forms  of  the  Hebrew  tongue  it  is  not  even 
necessary  to  express  the  'but.'  The  contrast  is 
marked  by  the  single  word,  '  a  leper ; '  standing 
in   its  naked  expressiveness  at  the  close  of  the 


GOD'S  GIFT  TO  MAN. 


gorgeous  description^  it  needs  no  disjunctive  par- 
ticle to  indicate  the  change  of  view;  no  more 
than  if  you  were  to  describe  a  man  as  being  in 
the  best  of  health,  and  after  dwelling  elaborately 
on  the  healthy  state  of  every  organ^  were  to  add 
m  a  moment  that  he  had  just  swallowed  a  dose 
of  deadly  poison. 

The  most  striking  cases,  however,  of  the  talis- 
man-power of  the  word  ^  but  ^  in  our  Bible,  are 
those  in  which  man's  state  as  a  sinner  is  con- 
trasted with  his  state  of  salvation  throug-h  Christ. 

o 

'O  Israel,  thou  havSt  destroyed  thyself;  but  in 
me  is  thy  help.''  ''The  wages  of  sin  is  death;  but 
the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.'  ^  These  shall  go  away  into 
everlasting  punishment,  but  the  righteous  into 
life  eternal/  ^  At  that  time  ye  were  without 
Christ,  being  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of 
Israel,  and  strangers  to  the  covenants  of  promise, 
having  no  hope,  and  without  God  in  the  world. 
But  now,  in  Christ  Jesus,  ye  who  sometimes 
were   far   off  are   made   nigh   bv   the   blood    of 


I04  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

Christ/  Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  instance 
of  any  occurs  m  the  beginning  of  the  second 
chapter  of  Ephesians.  Nothing  can  be  blacker 
than  the  picture  drawn  there  of  the  natural  con- 
dition of  the  members  of  that  church.  They  were 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  Dead^  however_,  in  a 
sense  that  implied  neither  rest  nor  peace,  because 
they  were  possessed  and  driven  by  lusts  of  evil 
and  spirits  of  darkness_,  that^  like  the  devils  in  the 
herd  of  swine^  were  forcing  them  to  the  brink  of 
a  terrible  precipice.  The  first  three  verses  of  the 
chapter  (omitting  the  words  in  italics,  ^  hath  he 
quickened^  in  the  first  verse_,  which  at  that  place 
rather  hurt  the  sense  than  improve  it)  are  a 
dramatic  representation  of  this  frightful  scene. 
A  host  of  human  beings,  blind  and  ghastlv  as 
corpses,  are  hurrying  tumultuously  along,  im- 
pelled by  wild,  infernal  impulses,  down  a  steep 
place  to  the  edge  of  the  gulf.  Their  doom  seems 
inevitable,  they  are  rushing  at  such  a  pace  and 
with  such  momentum,  that  no  power  on  earth 
can  save  them.     Suddenly,  however    an  arm  is 


GOnS  GIFT  TO  MAN.  105 

stretched  out  from  heaven.  Man^s  extremity  is 
God^s  opportunity.  As  though  it  were  in  a  dis- 
solving vieWj  the  picture  of  wild  tumult  and 
ghastly  ruin  gives  place  all  of  a  sudden  to  one  of 
heavenly  life  and  tranquillity.  And  the  change 
is  again  introduced  by  the  same  magical  word  : 
^  But  Godj  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for  his  great  love 
wherewith  he  loved  us^  even  when  we  were  dead 
in  sins,  hath  quickened  us  together  with  Christ.' 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  frequent 
and  striking  contrasts  of  the  two  states  are  intro- 
duced in  Scripture  on  purpose ;  and  a  slight 
measure  of  reflection  will  show  to  any  intelligent 
reader  what  that  purpose  must  be. 

I.  Thus_,  in  the  first  pla,ce,  they  make  it  very 
plain  that  the  two  states  are  essentially  separate 
from  each  other — the  state  of  sin  and  the  state  of 
grace  in  Christ. 

But  for  such  remarkable  contrasts  we  might 
suppose — what  at  all  times  we  are  prone  enough 
to  do — that  there  is  no  great  difference  between 
the  one  state  and  the  other ;  that  men  differ  from 


1 06  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

each  other^  or  differ  from  their  former  selves^  only 
in  this^  that  in  some  there  is  more  evil  and  less 
good^  and  in  others  more  good  and  less  evil.  We 
might  suppose  that  the  only  distinction  between 
men^  in  a  moral  sense_,  lay  in  the  proportions  in 
which  good  and  evil  entered  into  their  character^ 
and  that  as  these  proportions  are  all  but  infinitely 
varied,  so  their  classification  must  be  equally  di- 
versified^ and  that  no  hard  division  of  men  into 
two  great  states,  or  into  two  great  classes,  would 
even  be  practicable.  But  abounding  as  the  Bible 
does  with  the  sharp  contrasts  we  have  referred  to, 
such  a  view  cannot  be  held.  The  testimony  of 
Scripture  is  explicit  that  there  are  just  two  grand 
states — a  state  of  sin  and  a  state  of  grace,  a  state 
of  death  and  a  state  of  life.  No  doubt  many  dif- 
ficult questions  arise  out  of  this  doctrine.  On 
these  it  were  wise  for  us  to  leave  the  veil  of  ob- 
scurity as  it  is  left  in  the  Bible;  but  that  this  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  Bible  can  hardly  be  denied. 
And  who  does  not  see  how  thoroughly  this  view 
is  borne  out  by  the  personal  teaching  of  Christ 


GOD'S  GIFT  TO  MAN.  107 

himself?  What  feature  of  that  teaching  is  so 
remarkable  as  the  division  of  his  hearers  into  two 
great  classes  ?  The  two  gates_,  the  wide  and  the 
strait;  the  two  ways^  the  broad  and  the  narrow; 
the  twofold  terminus,  destruction  and  life;  the 
two  kinds  of  builders_,  on  the  rock  and  on  the 
sand ;  the  two  classes  of  virgins,  those  with  oil  in 
their  lamps  and  those  without  oil;  the  wheat  and 
the  chaflf;  the  branches  for  fruit  and  the  branches 
for  fuel ;  and,  to  mention  but  one  other,  the 
grand  division  on  the  great  day  of  judgment  of 
the  sheep  and  the  goats,  the  striking  contrasts 
brought  out  between  the  lives  of  the  two  classes, 
and  the  awful  solemnity  of  the  Judge's  sole  alter- 
native, ^  Come,  ye  blessed,^  or  ^  Depart,  ye  cursed,^ 
— all  show  the  prominence  of  this  grand  division 
in  the  mind  of  Christ,  and  the  vast  pains  he  took 
to  leave  a  clear  and  most  solemn  impression  of  it 
on  the  hearts  of  all  who  heard  Him. 

2.  Another  purpose  of  these  striking  contrasts 
is  to  show  clearly  that  sinful  man  cannot  be  his 
own  Saviour. 


io8  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

In  all  ages  his  tendency  has  been  to  believe 
in  his  ability  to  save  himself.  In  no  age  of  the 
world  was  this  tendency  ever  more  strong  than 
it  is  in  some  quarters  at  the  present  day.  We 
should  remark_,  however_,  that  the  word  save 
is  not  a  proper  word  in  such  a  connection. 
Wherever  man  holds  himself  sufficient_,  or  nearly 
sufficient^  to  remedy  the  evils  of  his  condition,  he 
cannot  believe  that  he  is  lost,  and  it  is  only  the 
lost  that  need  to  be  saved.  It  is  but  some  spots 
of  dust  he  has  got  on  his  garments,  some  slight 
dislocations  his  machinery  has  undergone,  some 
stupid  errors  into  which  he  has  ignorantly  fallen, 
or  which  have  been  handed  down  from  his 
fathers,  and  out  of  which  education  and  ex- 
perience will  by-and-by  be  sure  to  extricate  him. 
And  so  there  are  men  in  our  day,  of  highest 
culture  and  scholarship  too,  who  have  discovered 
that  there  is  no  need  for  God  to  help  human 
creatures  up  the  heights  of  improvement — nay, 
that  there  is  no  such  being  as  a  personal  God  at 
all !     The  gospel  of  these  men,  according  to  their 


GOD'S  GIFT  TO  MAN.  109 


most  recent  oracle,  ^  is  the  gospel  of  avrapKeia, 
the  creed  of  self-sufficience,  which  sees  for  man 
no  clearer  or  deeper  duty  than  that  of  intellectual 
self-reliance,  self-dependence,  self-respect  —  an 
evangel  not  to  be  cancelled  or  supplanted  by  any 
revelation  of  mystic,  or  prophet,  or  saint/  This 
is  the  boldest  utterance  that  the  spirit  of  self- 
dependence  has  ever  yet  given  out.  It  is  needless 
surely  to  remark  that  the  self-dependence  here 
extolled  is  quite  unlike  that  healthy  self-reliance 
which  teaches  a  man  not  to  depend  on  his  fellow- 
creatures  for  anything  that  with  God^s  help  he 
can  do  himself.  What  you  are  here  taught  js, 
not  that  you  are  to  be  independent  of  your 
fellow-men,  but  independent  even  of  God  ! 

Into  such  a  wild  extreme  as  this,  no  one  that 
reads  these  pages  is  ever  likely  to  fall.  But  how 
prone  are  we  to  fancy,  nevertheless,  that  to  a 
large  extent  we  are  able  to  save  ourselves  !  The 
debt  we  owe  to  God's  justice,  may  we  not  pay  at 
least  a  part  of  it  by  our  penitence  for  the  past, 
our  increased  diligence  for  the  future,  our  better 


I  lo  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE: 

lives^  our  abounding  good  works?  The  power 
that  sin  has  got  in  our  hearts,  may  we  not  check 
it,  and  in  some  degree  overcome  it,  if  we  are  only 
watchful  of  our  habits — if  we  are  but  on  our 
guard  against  temptation,  and  earnest  in  our 
efforts  to  control  ourselves  ?  True,  we  are 
weak  and  frail :  at  best  we  come  far  short  of 
perfection.  But  will  not  Christ  make  up  for  our 
deficiencies,  and  will  not  God  by  His  Spirit  help 
our  infirmities  ?  If  we  try  to  do  our  best,  what 
need  we  fear  ?  What  more  can  be  expected  of 
us  than  that  we  should  do  what  we  can  ?  How 
can  it  be  supposed  that  a  righteous  God  will 
exact  impossibilities,  and  demand  of  us  a  per- 
fection which  we  can  no  more  give  than  we  can 
fly  to  the  stars  ? 

To  all  these  questions  there  is  at  least  one 
answer.  They  all  assume  that  man  can  more  or 
less  save  himself.  They  assume,  therefore,  the 
opposite  of  what  is  taught  by  those  vivid  contrasts 
between  man^s  state  by  nature  and  his  state  by 
grace,  to  which  we  have  so   often  adverted.     If 


GOnS  GIFT  TO  MAN. 


man  can   be    his    own    saviour,    these    contrasts 
have  no  meaning.      There    is    no    propriety  in 
speaking  of  death  as  the  wages  of  sin_,  and  eternal 
life  as  the  gift  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord  ;  there  is  no  propriety  in  speaking  of  man 
as  self-destroyed,  and  affirming  that  his  only  help 
is  in  God.     All  those  passages  become  misleading 
and  worse,  that  stop  men^s  mouths  and  declare 
them   alike  guilty   and   helpless.      But  is   it  so  ? 
Is  man  sufficient  for  his  own  deliverance  ?     Nay, 
let  God  be  true,  but  every  man  a  liar.     Talk  of 
doing  your  best — who  is  there  that  does  his  best  ? 
What  kind  of  conscience  can  the  man  have  who 
affirms  that  he  does  his  best  ?     '  If  we   say  that 
we  are  without  sin  we  deceive  ourselves,  and   the 
truth  is  not  in  us.-*     And  are  we  not  responsible, 
too,  in   a   large  degree,  for   our   inability,   even 
when  we  try  earnestly  to  do  what  we  are  called 
by  God^s  law  to  do  ?     When   a  school-boy  has 
trifled  away  nine-tenths  of  the  time  allotted  for 
preparing   a   lesson,    when    he    has    wasted    his 
strength  and    dissipated    his   mental   energies  in 


112  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

some  exciting  sport_,  and  then,  hurrying  at  the  last 
moment  to  his  task,  strives  without  effect  to 
overtake  it,  is  it  excuse  enough  that  he  is  then 
doing  his  best  ?  Was  he  not  to  blame  for 
wasting  the  rest  of  the  time  ?  Was  he  not  to 
blame  for  letting  his  attention  be  diverted  and 
his  energies  scattered_,  so  that  he  could  not  con- 
centrate them  on  his  task  when  at  length  he 
tried  ?  And  is  there  no  blame  to  be  attached  to 
man  in  like  manner  for  his  inability  to  obey 
God^s  law_,  even  when  he  makes  the  effort  ?  Is 
not  this  in  great  part  the  fruit  of  the  inattention, 
and  the  trifling,  and  the  self-indulgence,  and  the 
worldliness  of  his  past  life  ?  Sufficiently  so,  at 
least,  to  justify  his  condemnation  ?  It  may  often 
be  hard  to  admit  this.  It  is  always  hard  to 
give  up  the  idea  of  saving  ourselves.  It  is  hard 
for  a  merchant  to  admit  that  he  is  a  bankrupt, 
and  to  lie  down  at  the  feet  of  his  creditors.  It 
is  hard  for  a  sinner  to  admit  that  he  is  a  bankrupt 
before  God,  and  cast  himself,  without  one  plea 
of  his   own,  on  the  Divine  mercy.     But,  if  we 


GOD'S  GIFT  TO  MAN.  113 

would  ever  taste  the  sweets  of  salvation,  we  must 
submit  to  this  act  of  humiliation.  Adam  must 
give  up  his  miserable  apron  of  fig-leaves^,  if  his 
shame  is  ever  to  be  covered.  All  of  us  must 
abandon  our  filthy  rags,  if  we  are  to  wear  the 
white  robe  of  salvation.  We  must  give  up  the 
notion  that  we  are  rich  and  increased  with  goods, 
and  have  need  of  nothing,  and  admit  that  we 
are  wretched,  and  miserable,  and  poor,  and  blind, 
and  naked. 

3.  Our  next  remark  is  already  obvious:  the 
contrasts  of  which  we  are  speaking  are  designed 
to  bring  out  very  clearly  that  man's  salvation 
proceeds  wholly  from  the  mercy  and  love  of  God. 

It  is  an  act  of  pure  grace,  not  only  not  de- 
served, but  the  very  opposite  of  what  is  deserv^ed. 
It  is  a  blessed  present  to  one  who  deserved  a 
signal  punishment :  ^  the  wages  of  sin  is  death, 
but  eternal  life  is  the  gift  of  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.'  No  words  could  be  more  fitlv 
chosen  to  convey  the  truth,  that  so  far  as  man 
is  concerned,  his  case  is  hopeless ;  and  that  his 


1 14  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

salvation  is  due  solely  to  the  generosity  and  grace 
of  God.  So_,  also^  in  another  of  the  passages 
already  quoted,  where  out  of  the  chaos  and  con- 
fusion of  his  self-caused  ruin  a  hand  from  heaven 
is  stretched  out  to  save.  '  God,  who  is  rich  in 
mercy,  for  his  great  love  wherewith  he  loved  us/ 
Geographers  tell  us  that  many  of  our  greatest 
rivers,  such  as  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  have 
a  twofold  source.  The  same  is  true  of  the  river 
of  the  water  of  life.  It  originates  in  these  two 
fountains,  the  '  mercy  ^  and  the  Move^  of  God. 
And  these  fountains  are  not  meagre  and  pre- 
carious streamlets,  for  He  is  ^  rich  in  mercy,^  and 
it  is  a  'great  love  wherewith  he  loved  us.'  ^For 
God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only- 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him 
should  not  perish,  but  should  have  everlasting 
life/  The  boundless  compassion  of  God  pitied 
the  children  of  men,  as  He  saw  them  led  by 
Satan,  ridden  by  sin,  exiles  from  home,  slaves  to 
corruption,  blindfolded  by  the  world,  cut  off  from 
heaven,  and  bound  for  hell.     And  the  boundless 


GOD'S  GIFT  TO  MAN.  115 

love  of  God  has  devised  a  method  of  salvation  at 
a  cost  and  sacrifice  to  Himself  that  no  words  can 
tell,  or  figures  calculate_,  adapted  to  remedy  every 
evil  that  sin  has  introduced_,  offered  as  a  free  gift 
to  all  men,  without  money  and  without  price,  if 
only  they  will  take  it  as  a  gift,  and  acknowledge 
the  infinite  mercy  that  has  thus  changed  them 
from  children  of  wrath  and  heirs  of  hell  to 
children  of  Goa  and  heirs  of  glory. 

There  are  many  misconceptions  of  God's  at- 
titude towards  sinners,  which  this  view  of  the 
origin  of  salvation  is  fitted  to  remove.  Let  us 
just  glance  at  two.  In  the  first  place  it  sweeps 
away  the  conception  that  God  is  an  easy-minded 
Being,  who  looks  with  considerable  indifference 
on  the  delinquencies  of  sinners,  and  now  that 
Christ  has  suffered  for  them,  is  more  than  ever 
disposed  to  treat  them  with  indulgence  and  leni- 
ency. If  there  be  any  feeling  more  remote  than 
another  from  that  which  the  Scriptures  ascribe  to 
God  in  connection  with  man^s  sin,  it  is  that  of 
easy-minded  indifference.     The  infinite  depths  of 


1 16  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

God^s  nature  are  stirred  by  man's  sin.  No  won- 
der !  '  Man,  the  crown  and  glory  of  creation,  is 
stained  from  head  to  foot  with  the  abominable 
thing  which  He  hates;  he  who  alone  of  earthly 
creatures  was  made  in  His  image,  is  impregnated 
through  and  through  with  the  quality  which  is 
too  disgusting  for  Him  to  look  on.  Never  was 
such  intense  compassion  known  as  that  which 
surges  in  the  Divine  bosom  when  the  fatal  blow 
behoves  to  be  struck.  '  How  shall  I  give  thee  up, 
Ephraim?  how  shall  T  deliver  thee,  Israel?  how 
shall  I  make  thee  as  Admah?  how  shall  I  set  thee 
as  Zeboim?  Mine  heart  is  turned  within  me, 
my  repentings  are  kindled  together.^  Never  was 
there  such  pains  taken  with  any  Divine  plan,  or 
such  a  sacrifice  made  to  fulfil  it,  as  in  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  salvation  of  men.  If  it  were  pos- 
sible for  God  to  be  easy-minded,  to  make  large 
allowance  for  sinners,  to  adopt  a  policy  of  in- 
dulgence, to  wink  at  the  iniquity  of  his  children, 
why  make  such  a  w^ork  about  their  guilt,  and 
about  their  redemption  ?     If  the  whole  subject  of 


GOnS  GIFT  TO  MAN.  117 

man^s  sin  could  be  easily  left  to  the  mere  mercy 
of  God_,  why  should  God  Himself  manifest  such 
intense  emotion  in  connection  with  it,  and  why 
should  such  a  price  be  paid  for  his  ransom  as  the 
blood  of  the  only-begotten  Son  ? 

The  other  misconception  of  God^s  attitude 
towards  sinners,  is  that  which  represents  Him  as 
full  of  wrath  and  fury  against  them,  pursuing 
them,  so  to  speak,  like  the  avenger  of  blood,  like 
Saul  enraged  at  David,  and  never  abating  His 
rage,  till  His  own  Son  rushed  between  them,  and 
received  in  His  own  person  the  blows  and  the 
bolts  that  were  meant  for  them.  It  is  hard  to 
say  if  this  view  was  ever  deliberately  given,  ex- 
cept as  an  enemy^s  caricature  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  atonement.  But  if  the  leaven  of  it  should 
lurk  in  any  one's  mind,  let  it  be  for  ever  expelled 
by  the  consideration  that  salvation  is  God's  gift 
to  sinners;  that  the  stream  of  the  water  of  life 
has  its  origin  in  the  rich  mercy  and  great  love  of 
the  Father;  that,  so  far  from  thirsting  for  the 
sinner's  punishment,  God's  very  soul  shrunk  from 


1 1 8  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

inflicting  it;  that  all  the  three  Persons  of  the 
Godhead  are  one  in  their  feelings  toward  the 
human  family;  and  that  'there  is  joy  in  heaven 
over  one  sinner  that  repenteth/  And  if  any- 
thing more  should  be  needed  to  expel  the  idea  of 
God^s  eagerness  to  hurl  His  thunderbolts  at  the 
sinner,  let  it  be  considered  that  the  feeling  thus 
ascribed  to  God  is  one  of  the  most  wretched 
weaknesses  of  fallen  humanity.  There  are  two 
grounds,  utterly  different  from  each  other,  on 
which  displeasure  may  be  felt  at  an  offence.  On 
the  one  hand,  you  may  be  grieved  and  horrified 
at  the  sin  itself,  and  if  you  be  a  judge,  whose  duty 
it  is  to  punish  the  guilty,  you  will  be  much  dis- 
tressed at  the  necessity  of  inflicting  retribution 
for  a  deed  so  wicked.  On  the  other  hand,  you 
may  care  little  or  nothing  about  the  criminality 
of  the  act,  or  the  guilt  of  the  offender,  but  may 
be  greatly  exasperated  and  provoked  at  the  an- 
noyance or  injury  done  to  yourself.  Alas,  the 
wrath  of  many  at  the  sins  of  others  has  no  higher 
source  than  this !     You  mav  have  as  manv  sins 


GOnS  GIFT  TO  MAN.  119 

and  vices  as  vou  please,  without  rousing  their 
emotion  in  any  shape,  so  long  as  you  do  not  come 
across  their  path ;  but  the  moment  you  annoy  or 
injure  them,  there  is  no  bound  to  their  indigna- 
tion, or  to  their  eagerness  to  punish  and  restrain 
you.  But  how  selfish  and  unholy  is  the  indigna- 
tion that  is  inspired  solely  by  such  a  cause  as 
this  !  To  ascribe  any  such  feeling  to  God  is  not 
merely  to  make  Him  a  partner  of  our  infirmities, 
but  a  partaker  of  our  meanest  sins.  How  differ- 
ent the  quality  of  that  wrath  which  burns  in 
His  holy  bosom  !  The  passage  which  we  have 
quoted  so  often  shows  clearly  how  such  wrath 
exists  alongside  of  injiriite  mercy  and  infinite  love. 
The  description  of  the  state  of  the  Ephesians  has 
reached  its  climax  when  they  are  called  ^  children 
of  wrath,  even  as  others.'  God's  ^  wrath  '  was 
their  very  heritage,  the  element  in  which  they 
lived,  the  mother,  it  might  almost  appear,  of 
whom  they  were  born.  Yet  at  the  same  moment, 
as  we  read  in  the  very  next  clause,  they  were  the 
objects  of  God's  rich  mercy  and  wonderful  love. 


1 20  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

What  marvellous  combinations  of  feeling  the 
Divine  heart  can  cherish  !  Constant  and  burning 
wrath  side  by  side  with  infinite  compassion  and 
love  !  ^  For  my  ways  are  not  your  ways^  neither 
are  your  thoughts  my  thoughts,  saith  the  Lord. 
For  as  the  heaven  is  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are 
my  ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  my  thoughts 
than  your  thoughts/ 

One  other  purpose  of  these  contrasts  we  men- 
tion— to  set  forth  the  completeness  and  glory  of 
God^s  salvation. 

There  are  contrasts  of  colour,  familiar  to  every 
artist,  which  are  always  made  use  of  when  it  is 
designed  to  give  great  force  and  prominence  to 
some  figure  or  object  in  a  picture.  The  deeper 
the  gloom  of  the  heavens  behind,  the  brighter 
seems  the  flash  of  lightning  that  throws  a  moment 
of  midday  into  the  darkness  of  the  night.  So  also 
the  glory  of  God^s  salv^ation  is  made  to  appear 
greater  when  it  is  placed  side  by  side  with  the 
picture  of  man^s  ruin.  It  is  a  favourite  practice 
of  some  of  the  sacred  writers  to  place  the"two  to- 


GOD'S  GIFT  TO  MAN.  121 

gether.  In  the  prophets  we  sometimes  find  awful 
pictures  of  guilt,  and  when  we  might  expect  these 
to  be  followed  by  tremendous  denunciations  of 
punishment,  we  find  them  actually  followed  by 
magnificent  manifestations  of  mercy.  The  first 
chapter  of  Isaiah  is  one  of  the  darkest  in  all  the 
Bible;  its  first  words  are  an  impassioned  appeal 
to  earth  and  heaven  against  those  whom  God 
had  nourished  and  brought  up  as  children,  but 
who  had  rebelled  against  Him.  As  it  proceeds 
it  advances  fresh  charges,  and  detects  in  their 
most  sacred  services  the  abominations  of  hypocrisy 
in  place  of  the  beauties  of  holiness ;  and  then,  at 
the  very  climax,  when  you  might  have  expected  a 
burst  of  thunder,  you  have  a  burst  of  mercy — 
'  Come  now,  and  let  us  reason  together,  saith  the 
Lord :  though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall 
be  as  white  as  snow;  though  they  be  red  like 
crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool/  So  also,  to  take 
but  one  more  instance,  in  the  twenty-eighth 
chapter  of  the  Sa,me  prophet;  the  ^scornful  men' 
that  rule  Jerusalem  are  arraigned  for  their  match- 


1 22  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

less  wickedness^  and  after  many  a  remonstrance 
with  them  for  particular  forms  of  sin,  the  head 
and  front  of  their  offending  is  set  forth  in  these 
startling  words — ^Because  ye  have  said_,  We  have 
made  a  covenant  with  death,  and  with  hell  are 
we  at  agreement;  when  the  overflowing  scourge 
shall  pass  through,  it  shall  not  come  unto  us :  for 
we  have  made  lies  our  refuge,  and  under  falsehood 
have  we  hid  ourselves.'  What  then  ?  What 
follows  such  outrageous  wickedness  ?  Does  the 
earth  open  her  mouth,  or  hell  her  jaws,  to  ingulf 
them  ?  The  very  reverse  !  ^  Therefore  thus  saith 
the  Lord  God,  Behold,  I  lay  in  Zion  for  a  found- 
ation a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a  precious  corner 
stone;  a  sure  foundation:  he  that  believeth  shall 
not  make  haste/  But  to  guard  against  the  abuse 
of  this  matchless  grace  it  is  added — ^Judgment 
also  will  I  lay  to  the  line,  and  righteousness  to  the 
plummet :  and  the  hail  shall  sweep  away  the  re- 
fuge of  lies,  and  the  waters  shall  overflow  the 
hiding-place/ 

Thus  does  God  impressively  show  us  the  com- 


GOUS  GIFT  TO  MAN.  123 

pleteness  and  the  glory  of  His  salvation.  He  places 
it  side  bv  side  with  the  evil  which  it  is  desio-ned 
to  remedy^  and  however  terrible  may  be  the  aspect 
of  the  one^  it  is  dissipated  like  vapour  by  the  glory 
of  the  other.  The  remedy  has  not  been  devnsed 
on  a  superficial  and  cursory  view  of  the  evil  that 
has  to  be  provided  for;  that  evil  has  been  surv^eyed 
in  every  aspect^  and  gauged  in  every  dimension ; 
and  still  the  result  is,  that  '  where  sin  abounded, 
grace  does  much  more  abound.'  The  gift  of  God  is 
not  a  mere  palliation  that  will  but  modify  some  of 
the  features  of  the  disease,  it  is  a  glorious  remedy 
that  will  search  it  to  its  depths  till  not  a  trace  of 
it  remains.  No  doubt  it  is  a  strong  man  in  whose 
arms  the  sinner  lies  bound  and  helpless;  but  He 
who  has  come  to  bind  him  is  infinitely  stronger ! 
Delightful  and  blessed  assurance  !  If  it  be  terrible 
to  think  how  we  are  children  of  disobedience  and 
children  of  wrath — how  we  are  environed  by  sin 
and  death  and  hell — how  these  hold  us  in  a  vice, 
like  the  grim  serpents  that  held  Laocoon  and  his 
sons  in  their  inextricable  folds,  it  is  glorious  to 


124  SA  VING  KNO WLEDGE. 

think  of  One  beside  us,  at  whose  word  all  the 
powers  of  darkness  let  go  their  hold,  and  who,  if 
we  will  but  grasp  His  hand,  will  bring  us  out  into 
the  glorious  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God.  But  ever 
let  us  remember,  that  as  is  the  privilege,  so  also 
is  the  responsibility;  and  that  just  because  the 
salvation  is  so  complete  and  so  glorious,  so  also  is 
the  doom  of  those  who  reject  it  hopeless  and  ir- 
remediable. ^  How  shall  we  escape ^  if  we  neglect 
so  great  salvation  ?' 


VI. 

THE  SAVIOUR'S  PERSON. 

^  I  ^HERE  are  different  ways  of  making  a  present. 
When  it  is  such  a  thing  as  money,  or  bread, 
or  clothing,  it  is  not  only  given,  but  given  away  by 
the  giver,  and  not  only  taken,  but  taken  away  by 
the  receiver.  Such  things  are  enjoyed  apart  from 
the  person  from  whom  they  come;  sometimes, 
indeed,  with  grateful  remembrances  of  his  kind- 
ness, but  quite  as  often  amid  thankless  indifference 
and  thoughtless  neglect.  But  gifts  may  be  offered 
in  a  different  form.  A  benevolent  man,  touched 
by  the  ignorance  of  a  community,  may  make 
them  a  present  of  a  teacher,  or  touched  by  their 
ailments,  a  present  of  a  doctor ;  that  is,  he  may 
provide  for  the  maintenance  of  such  persons,  and 


1 2.6  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 


arrange  with  them  to  labour  in  the  district.  Or 
better  stilly  he  himself  may  settle  among  the  peo- 
ple, and  devote  his  whole  time  and  energy  to  the 
task  of  removing  their  ignorance  and  relieving 
their  sufferings.  In  this  case,  the  present,  though 
given,  is  not  given  away,  and  the  benefit,  while 
taken,  is  not  taken  away.  By  the  nature  of  the 
case  the  present  is  connected  with  the  person  of 
the  donor,  and  the  benefaction  depends  on  per- 
sonal intercourse  with  him.  Those  who  wish  to 
get  the  benefit  must  come  into  a  direct  and  friendly 
relation  to  him  :  and,  supposing  him  to  be  per- 
fectly qualified  for  his  work,  the  degree  of  benefit 
they  receive  will  depend  on  the  amount  of  respect 
they  cherish  for  his  person,  the  eagerness  with 
which  they  receive  his  instructions,  and  the  hearti- 
ness with  which  they  commit  themselves  to  his 
guidance. 

It  is  much  more  after  the  latter  of  these 
methods  than  the  former  that  God  makes  his 
great  gift  to  men.  ^  This  is  the  record,  that  God 
hath  given  to  us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is  in 


THE  SA  VIOUR'S  PERSON.  127 

his  Son/  (i  John  v.  ii.)  All  that  enters  into 
the  composition  of  eternal  life^  GocPs  gift  to 
sinners^  has  been  committed  in  the  first  instance 
to  the  Son.  All  the  qualifications  for  procuring 
it  centre  in  Him ;  the  work  to  be  done  for  it  was 
done  by  Him  ;  and  all  the  blessings  it  consists  of 
are  stored  or  deposited  in  Him.  If  we  would  have 
eternal  life^  therefore,  we  must  come  into  personal 
communication  with  the  Son.  He  gives  it,  but 
He  does  not  give  it  away.  If  we  would  take  it, 
we  cannot  take  it  away.  We  must  take  it  by 
receiving  Christ  in  whom  it  subsists,  partly  in  the 
same  way  as  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt  could  obtain 
deliverance  only  by  receiving  Moses,  the  appointed 
deliverer.  They  had  a  distinct  promise  of  deliver- 
ance and  national  life,  but  when  the  time  came  for 
its  fulfilment,  it  was  found  to  be  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  person  of  Moses.  To  reject  Moses 
was  to  reject  deliverance ;  to  receive  Moses,  and 
give  all  due  honour  to  him  and  to  his  messages, 
was  the  way  to  salvation.  So  for  us,  likewise,  to 
receive   Christ,  is  to  secure  life ;  to  reject  Christ, 


128  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

is  to  reject  life.  ^  For  he  that  beHeveth  on  the 
Son  hath  everlasting  Hfe;  and  he  that  beheveth 
not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life;  but  the  wrath 
of  God  abideth  on  him.' 

Two  grand  inquiries  fall  to  be  made  respecting 
Christy  viewed  as  the  Being  in  whom  eternal  life 
subsists  for  the  benefit  and  salvation  of  men.  The 
first  inquiry  has  respect  to  his  person,  the  second 
to  his  work.  Who  is  He,  and  what  has  He  done  ? 
What  assurance  does  the  nature  of  the  case  afford 
to  the  mind  and  conscience  of  man_,  that  He  is 
qualified  to  bestow  the  life  which  He  offers,  and 
that  in  closing  with  His  offer,  and  committing 
ourselves  to  His  guidance,  we  shall  be  conducted 
to  those  realms  of  glory  which  our  wistful  hearts 
sometimes  dream  of,  as  some  captive  soldier  in  a 
lonely  dungeon  may  dream  of  the  festive  gatherings 
of  his  youth,  as  of  scenes  which  it  were  almost, 
and  yet  not  quite,  vain  to  hope  ever  to  see  again. 

It  is  to  the  testimony  of  God^s  word  we  must 
look  for  our  guidance  on  both  these  questions. 
Reason,  by  herself,  is  quite  unable  to  thread  her 


THE  SA  VI OURS  PERSON.  129 

way  through  the  darkness  and  difficulties  of  such 
inquiries^  and  even  when  the  lamp  of  Revelation 
is  employed  to  hght  our  path^  we  are  compelled 
again  and  again  to  hold  up  our  hands  in  amaze- 
ment_,  and  to  say,  ^  Great  is  the  mystery  of  godli- 
ness ! ' 

That  a  great  mystery  attaches  to  the  person  of 
Christ_,  according  to  the  received  view  of  it,  every 
one  will  surely  allow.  The  union  of  the  two 
natures,  finite  and  infinite,  in  one  person,  trans- 
cends the  compass  of  our  faculties,  and  when  we 
try  to  fathom  the  subject  we  find  ourselves  ^in 
wandering  mazes  lost/  If  our  spirit  be  humble 
and  child-like  as  it  ought  to  be,  we  shall  be  con- 
tent to  believe  where  we  cannot  hope  to  compre- 
hend, and  willing  to  adore  at  the  base  of  heights 
to  whose  cloud-capped  summits  we  dare  not,  in 
this  life  at  all  events,  think  of  climbing. 

So  also,  although  some  are  less  ready  to  ac- 
Knowledge  it,  there  is  a  mystery  about  Christ^s 
work.  The  fancy  of  some  is,  that  in  this  depart- 
ment all  can  be  made  clear  and  level  to  an  ordinary 


1 30  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

capacity ;  that  all  about  that  righteousness  which 
is  like  the  great  mountains^  and  those  judgments 
which  are  a  great  deep — all  about  the  relation  of 
the  Judicial  to  the  Paternal,  all  about  atonement, 
satisfaction,  and  reconciliation,  can  be  made  as 
plain  as  a  rule  of  arithmetic !  Surely  it  is  wise  to 
believe  that  a  shade  of  mystery  must  lie  upon  the 
work  as  well  as  upon  the  person  of  the  Saviour. 
It  is  wise  for  us  to  believe  this,  while  firmly  repu- 
diating the  opposite  error  that  everything  about 
the  work  is  involved  in  impenetrable  obscurity. 
^  We  know  in  part  ^  indeed,  but  we  do  know  a 
part.  Let  us  be  content  with  the  part  we  may 
know.  There  are  glorious  things  revealed  con- 
cerning the  work  of  Christ,  enough  to  assure  the 
most  rigid  conscience  that  every  demand  of  divine 
righteousness  is  satisfied  in  it,  and  that  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  sinner  for  Christ^s  sake  is  not 
more  subservient  to  his  welfare  than  to  God^s 
glory.  But  for  the  most  part,  what  the  Bible 
brings  before  us  is  the  simple  fact  that  ^  Christ 
hath  once  suffered  for  sin,  the  just  for  the  unjust. 


THE  SA  VI 0  URS  PERSON.  1 3 1 

to  bring  us  unto  God/  And  the  chief  texts  that 
in  all  ages  and  communions  have  brought  peace 
and  joy  to  stricken  sinners_,  that  have  been  like 
lamps  from  heaven  to  numberless  death-beds^  are 
those  M^hich  set  forth  the  work  of  Christ  in  its 
simplest  and  broadest  aspect — 'Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world ;' 
'  Him  that  cometh  unto  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast 
out ;  ^  ^  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin/ 

If  we  follow  the  light  of  Scripture  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Christ's  person^  we  shall  find  these  three 
things  taught  concerning  it : — Firsts  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Eternal  Son  of  God ;  second,  that 
He  became  man;  and  third,  that  He  was  both 
God  and  Man  in  One  Person,  and  will  so  remain 
for  evermore. 

I.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Eternal  Son  of  God. 
The  most  cursory  reader  of  the  Bible  must  see 
that,  according  to  its  teaching,  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
Son  of  God  in  a  sense  in  which  no  other  being  is 
His  son.     He  is  the  'only  begotten  Son,  who  is 


1 32  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

in  the  bosom  of  the  Father/     So  pecuUar  is  His 
claim^  and  so  unique  is  the  relation_,  that  as  God 
is  emphatically  called  ''  The  Father/  so  Jesus  is  as 
emphatically  called  ^  The  Son/     ^  Whatsoever  ye 
shall  ask  the  Father  in  my  name^  that  will  He 
do,  that  THE  Father  may  be  glorified  in  the 
Son.'     The  doctrine  established  by  this  very  re- 
markable mode  of  expression  is  that  of  the  ^Eternal 
Sonship/      It  is  a  doctrine  that  may  be  said  to 
flow  from  God's  Fatherhood.     If  God  be  eternally 
the  Father,  He  must  have  eternally  a  Son.   There 
cannot  be  a  father  without  a  son,  and  there  cannot 
be  an  eternal  father  without  an  eternal  son.     It  is 
the  property  of  the  Father  eternally  to  beget,  and 
the  property  of  the  Son  to  be  eternally  begotten. 
The  subject  is  awfully  mysterious.     St  Augustine 
tried  to  bring  it  a  step  nearer  to  us  by  a  simple 
illustration.     He  supposed  a  lake  to  have  existed 
from  eternity,  with  a  flower  on  its  margin,  and  a 
light  falling  on  the  flower.     The  flower  in  that 
case  must  eternally  have  had  a  shadow.     It  is  the 
property  of  the  flower  eternally  to   produce   the 


THE  SAVIOURS  PERSON. 


shadow^  and  the  property  of  the  shadow  to  be 
eternally  produced  by  the  flower.  Such  was  St 
Augustine's  faint  attempt  to  illustrate  a  relation 
of  which  no  adequate  conception  is  possible  to  us^ 
certainly  not  in  the  life  that  now  is,  and  it  may 
be  not  even  in  that  which  is  to  come. 

Two  things^  however,  may  be  noted  concern- 
ing this  relation — one  as  to  what  it  does  not 
imply,  the  other  as  to  what  it  does. 

It  implies  no  inferiority.  The  Son  is  not 
inferior  to  the  Father.  He  is  the  same  in  sub- 
stance, equal  in  power  and  glory.  He  is  the 
brightness  of  His  glory,  and  the  express  image 
of  His  person.  He  is  uncreated  Light  of  un- 
created Light,  very  God  of  very  God,  the  Alpha 
and  the  Omega,  the  First  and  the  Last.  The 
seraphim  in  His  presence  veil  their  faces  and 
their  feet,  crying,  ^  Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God 
of  hosts.-*  Like  the  Father,  He  dwells  in  light 
inaccessible  and  full  of  glory.  The  angels 
worship  Him  as  they  worship  the  Father.  His 
voice,  equally   with   the   Father^s,   summons   the 


1 34  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

things  that  are  not  into  being.  And  like  the 
Father_,  He  is  separated  from  the  highest  angel 
by  a  gulf  infinitely  wider  than  that  which  separ- 
ates the  highest  angel  from  the  meanest  insect — 
the  gulf^  in  a  word^  that  separates  the  creature 
from  the  Creator^  the  finite  from  the  Infinite,  the 
child  of  yesterday  from  the  Eternal  God. 

The  other  thing  to  be  remarked  of  this  re- 
lation is,   that  it   implies  great   tenderness   and 
gladsomeness  of  feeling.     It  invests  the  fellowship 
of  the  First  and  Second   Persons  with  the  in- 
describable charm  of  kinship,,  the  kinship  which 
subsists  between  a  father  and  his  son.     It  is  not 
easy  to   define,  even   in   the   case  of  a   human 
relationship,  the  nature  of  that  peculiar  joy  which 
kinship  adds  to  the  fellowship  of  congenial  hearts. 
It  is,  of  course,  far  more  difficult  to  comprehend 
the  nature  or  the  force  of  this  element  ia  the  case 
of  Divine  Persons.     But  of  the  reality  of  it  we 
have  some  remarkable  glimpses.     Where  is  the 
Son^s  characteristic  place  ?     In  the  bosom  of  the 
Father.    What  is  the  Father's  feeling  to  the  Son  ? 


THE  SA  VI  0  UKS  PERSON.  1 3  5 

^  Behold  my  servant  whom  I  uphold^  mine  elect 
in  whom  my  soul  delighteth  1 '  If  paternal 
feelings  dispose  to  a  more  tender^  protecting 
love^  they  must  have  had  this  effect  in  the  case 
of  God.  And  this  makes  it  the  more  wonderful 
that  He  should  have  given  up  His.  Son  to  agony 
and  death  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world, 
and  gives  an  unanswerable  emphasis  to  that 
challenge  of  the  Apostle,  ^  He  that  spared  not 
his  own  Son,  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all, 
how  shall  he  not  with  Him  also  freely  give  us 
all  things  ?  ^ 

1.  The  next  great  fact  taught  us  as  to  the 
person  of  Christ  is,  that  He  became  man.  He 
took  to  Himself  a  true  body  and  a  reasonable  soul. 
He  became  a  true  brother  of  our  race,  bone  of  our 
bone,  and  flesh  of  our  flesh  ;  was  acquainted  with 
all  our  human  feelings — our  sorrows,  and  weak- 
nesses, and  trials — all  but  sin.  The  Scriptures, 
while  they  are  so  explicit  in  affirming  Christ^s 
proper  Divinity,  are  at  equal  pains  in  affirming 
and  illustrating  His  true  humanity.     He  entered 


1 36       •  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

the  world  as  we  enter  it_,  for  He  was  born ;  He 
left  the  world  as  we  leave  it_,  for  He  died.  And 
no  little  care  is  taken  to  fill  up  these,  the  great 
outlines  of  His  human  life.  We  have  the  picture 
of  the  young  mother,  weary  and  travel- worn, 
reaching  Bethlehem  in  much  the  same  condition 
as  Rachel  had  approached  it  centuries  before ; 
taking  refuge  in  the  stable,  bringing  forth  her 
babe  there,  wrapping  Him  in  swaddling  bands, 
and  laying  Him  in  the  manger.  We  are  told  of 
the  flight  into  Egypt,  caused  by  the  cruel  plot 
against  His  life,  for  even  His  life  had  to  be  pro- 
tected by  the  same  contrivances  as  ours.  We 
have  His  return  to  Nazareth,  where  He  was 
subject  to  His  parents,  and  His  growth  in  stature 
and  in  wisdom,  and  in  favour  with  God  and  with 
man.  We  have  the  incident  of  His  being  lost  at 
Jerusalem,  and  the  picture  of  the  commotion 
when  that  loss  became  known,  just  as  there 
would  be  in  any  of  our  own  households  if  one  of 
our  children  was  lost ;  we  read  of  the  mother^s 
joy,  and  the  mother's  impatience  too,  on  finding 


THE  SAVIOURS  PERSON.  137 

Him  ;  and  lest  we  should  forget  His  Divinity 
amid  such  multiplied  tokens  of  His  humanity, 
we  have  the  wonderful  reply  to  His  mother — the 
solitary  floweret,  as  it  has  heen  called,  from  the 
enclosed  garden  of  the  thirty  years — 'Wist  ye 
not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father^s  business  ?  ^ 
In  riper  years  we  see  Him  in  all  the  ordinary 
conditions  in  which  the  poorer  class  of  men  are 
found  :  wearied  with  heat  and  travel,  sitting  on 
a  well ;  wearied  with  work  and  teaching,  retiring 
for  rest  to  the  quiet  hills,  or  putting  off  in  a  boat 
to  be  refreshed  by  the  cool  lake-breeze ;  we  see 
Him  eating,  drinking,  hungering,  thirsting,  sleep- 
ing, sorrowing,  rejoicing,  praying,  shuddering, 
weeping.  We  see  Him  shrinking  from  agony 
and  death,  as  we  too  shrink  from  them,  then 
bracing  Himself  to  meet  them,  and  going  forth 
in  defiance  of  them,  clad  in  divine  armour  and 
strong  in  divine  strength.  We  see  Him  on  the 
cross,  committing  His  poor  mother  to  the  care 
of  a  humble  disciple,  expressing  the  common 
sensation  of  dying  humanity,  ^I  thirst^ — uttering 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


His  last  word_,  drawing  His  last  breath,  when  His 
head  droops  as  ours  would  droop,  and  He  gives 
up  the  ghost.  What  a  mystery  is  this  in- 
carnation, and  yet  what  an  undeniable  fact !  Is 
it  not  true  that  many  excellent  Christians  think 
of  it  too  little,  go  too  seldom  to  the  cradle  of 
Jesus  ?  True,  there  Is  an  overwhelming  attraction 
to  the  cross.  The  cross  speaks  to  us  of  completed 
redemption,  of  an  everlasting  and  all-sufficient 
righteousness,  and  when  our  souls  are  agitated 
by  guilt  and  conscious  unw^orthiness,  its  voice 
comes  to  us  like  the  words  of  Jesus  over  the  Sea 
of  Galilee,  ^  Peace,  be  still.^  But  if  Calvary  has 
its  overwhelming  attraction,  Bethlehem  has  its 
attraction  too.  That  stable  is  a  wonderful  school 
for  faith  and  joy,  and  has  lessons  that  make  it 
good  for  us  to  be  there.  It  teaches  us  that  for 
evermore  the  life  of  Jesus  has  been  poured  into 
the  current  of  our  human  life,  that  the  Eternal 
Son  has  joined  Himself  to  us  for  ever,  that  on 
our  dishonoured  escutcheon  the  Prince  of  Heaven 
has  quartered  His  arms,  never  to  be  effaced.     O 


THE  SA  VIOURS  PERSON.  139 

fact^  full  of  hope  and  blessing  !  O  Elder  Brother, 
thou  wilt  not  cast  off  any  of  Thy  brethren  when 
they  come  to  Thee,  bedraggled  and  tattered 
though  their  garments  be,  and  though  their 
hearts  and  lives  be  defiled  a  thousand  times 
worse!  Strong  Son  of  Man,  Thou- wilt  not 
leave  any  fallen  and  crawling  member  of  Thy 
race  who  looks  wistfully  to  Thee,  till  Thou  hast 
brought  him  among  the  many  sons  to  glory,  till 
Thou  hast  washed  him,  and  cleansed  him  through 
the  washing  of  water  by  the  word  ;  and  till  Thou 
hast  presented  him  to  Thyself  a  member  of  Thy 
glorious  Church,  without  spot  or  wTinkie  or  any 
such  thing  ! 

Let  us  mark  another  fact,  too,  both  in  the 
incarnation  and  the  death  of  Jesus.  In  the  life 
of  every  human  being,  the  two  things  that  are 
most  beyond  his  control  are  his  birth  and  his 
death.  Except  in  the  case  of  those  who  sinfully 
or  insanely  take  their  death  into  their  own  hands, 
no  choice  is  afforded  us  ;  we  can  but  bow  to  our 
destiny  in  the  one  and  in  the  other.     In  the  case 


I40  'SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


of  Jesus,  on  the  other  hand,  both  His  birth  and 
His  death,  and  all  the  circumstances  attending 
them,  were  subject  to  His  own  calm  determination. 
He  willed  to  be  born,  and  He  willed  to  die, 
knowing  the  humiliation  and  sufferings  attending 
each.  He  willed  to  be  born  among  the  beasts  at 
Bethlehem ;  He  willed  to  die  amid  thieves  and 
fiends  at  Calvary  ! 

3.  Jesus  was  and  continues  to  be  both  God 
and  man  for  ever.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  do 
more  than  allude  in  passing  to  various  other 
views  that  have  been  held  on  the  person  of  Jesus : 
as,  that  He  had  only  the  appearance  of  a  body — 
the  error  so  warmly  denounced  by  St  John;  that 
He  had  not  a  human  soul,  but  that  His  divine 
nature  was  His  soul ;  that  the  two  natures  sub- 
sisted in  two  persons  very  intimately  connected  ; 
or  that  the  two  natures  were  blended  into  one 
compound  nature,  possessing  the  properties  and 
qualities  of  both.  Our  doctrine  is,  that  the  two 
natures,  with  their  distinct  properties  and  qualities, 
belonged  to  Christ,  yet  that  they  made  but  one 


THE  SA  VIOURS  PERSON.  141 

personality_,  one  being,  one  Christ.  And  this  is 
gathered  from  the  texts  in  which  the  same  being 
is  spoken  of  as  both  God  and  man,  and  the 
attributes,  now  of  God  and  now  of  man,  are 
ascribed  to  His  one  person.  ^  Feed  the  flock  of 
God,  which  he  hath  purchased  with  his  own 
Hood/  ^  I  am  the  bread  of  Life.^  '  I  am  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Life.^  Who  made  these 
statements  ?  '  Is  not  this  the  carpenter's  son  ?  ^ 
asked  the  Jews,  ^  and  are  not  his  brethren  with 
us?'  Yet  the  carpenter's  son,  the  same  who 
went  out  one  morninff  in  search  of  a  fio;  or  other 
morsel  to  break  His  fast,  claims  not  only  to  have, 
but  to  be  the  Bread  of  Life,  and  He  who  begged 
of  the  woman  of  Samaria  a  draught  from  Jacob's 
well,  claims  not  only  to  have,  but  to  be  the 
Water  of  Life.  It  is  the  same  I  who  on  the  cross 
says,  ^  I  thirst,'  and  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem, 
'  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and 
drink.'  In  the  same  J,  the  necessities  of  the 
human  being  and  the  infinite  powers  of  the 
Mighty  God  are  blended !     How  soon  do  we  get 


142  SA  VING  KNO WLEDGE. 

beyond  our  depth  when  we  occupy  ourselves  with 
such  a  theme !  Like  bathers  on  a  sloping  beach, 
we  go  out  but  a  yard  or  two_,  and  immediately 
we  are  in  deep  waters;  or  like  Noah^s  dove,  we 
roam  hither  and  thither,  but  find  no  rest  for  the 
sole  of  our  foot.  After  all,  is  it  wonderful  that 
it  should  be  so  ?  '  Canst  thou  by  searching  find 
out  God  j  canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  unto 
perfection  ?  It  is  high  as  heaven,  what  canst 
thou  know;  deeper  than  hell,  what  canst  thou 
think  ?  The  measure  thereof  is  longer  than  the 
earth  and  broader  than  the  sea/  If  in  His  unity 
even,  God  is  incomprehensible,  what  must  He 
not  be  in  the  Trinity  of  Persons?  And  what 
must  He  not  be  in  the  incarnation  of  one  of 
these  Persons,  and  the  assumption  of  a  creature^s 
finite  nature  into  union  with  His  infinite  nature 
in  one  person  for  ever? 

But  little  though  it  be  that  we  can  understand 
of  this  great  mystery,  we  see  enough  to  assure  us 
that  from  the  wonderful  constitution  of  His  Per- 
son, Jesus  Christ  is  amply  sufficient  for  the  work 


777^  SA  VIOURS  PERSON.  143 

of  redemption.  There  are  cases  in  which  a 
practised  eye  can  tell  beforehand  whether  or  not 
a  beam  be  equal  to  a  weight,  whether  or  not  a 
back  be  equal  to  a  burden.  There  is  a  large 
waggon,  with  goods  piled  heavily  aloft,  making 
no  contemptible  load ;  but  here  is  a  team  of  the 
strongest  and  noblest  horses,  and  before  they 
begin  to  pull,  we  know  instinctively  that  they  are 
able  for  the  effort.  There  is  a  brawling  stream, 
rushing  through  its  channel  of  rock  as  if  it  would 
sweep  all  before  it;  yonder  is  a  single  plank^ 
wasted  through  long  exposure,  so  palpably  frail, 
that  you  cannot  think  of  intrusting  yourself  to 
it ;  but  here,  a  little  further  down,  is  a  strong  iron 
bridge  spanning  the  stream ;  you  have  not  a 
doubt  but  that  it  is  sufficient  for  your  weight,  and 
that  you  may  cross  in  safety.  There  is  the  awful 
burden  of  human  sin,  rising  up  like  a  mountain 
to  heaven,  and  defying  all  man^s  resources  and 
skill  to  remove  it;  but  here  is  One  who  is  at  once 
the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man,  travailing 
in  the  greatness  of  His  might,  and  constraining 


1 44  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

us  to  say^  ^  Who  art  thou^  O  great  mountain  ? 
Before  this  Zerubbabel,  thou  shalt  be  a  plain/  If 
power_,  worth_,  and  dignity  be  needed  for  the 
work  of  redemption^,  they  are  brought  to  the 
task  in  infinite  degree  by  the  Son  of  God;  if 
sympathy,  brotherhood,  and  a  capacity  of  suffering 
be  needed_,  they  are  brought  in  all  fulness  by  the 
Son  of  Man.  We  have  but  to  look  at  this  Lamb 
of  God  to  be  convinced  that  He  can  take  away 
the  sin  of  the  world.  We  have  but  to  examine 
this  foundation-stone,  elect  and  precious,  to  see 
that  it  is  fitted  to  bear  the  superstructure  of  the 
Church  of  the  redeemed.  '  Behold  my  servant, 
whom  I  uphold,  mine  elect,  in  whom  my  soul 
delighteth ;  I  have  put  my  Spirit  upon  him,  he 
shall  bring  forth  judgment  to  the  Gentiles.  .  .  . 
He  shall  not  fail  or  be  discouraged  till  he  have 
set  judgment  in  the  earth;  and  the  isles  shall 
wait  for  his  law.-* 

In  a  somewhat  less  exalted  point  of  view,  it 
is  most  instructive  to  remember  that  Jesus  Christ 


THE  SAVIOURS  PERSON.  145 

was  successively  an  infant^  a  child^  a  boy^  a  young 
man^  and  a  man  of  mature  strength  and  years. 
An  infant^  with  that  which  is  so  characteristic  of 
infancy^  its  utter  feebleness_,  its  helpless  and  ab- 
solute dependence  upon  others;  a  child,  obedient 
to  His  parents_,  accustoming  Himself  to  control 
every  desire  of  His  own^  and  conscientiously  act 
in  compliance  with  their  will ;  a  boy,  and  even 
then  glad  when  it  was  said  to  Him,  'Let  us  go 
up  to  the  house  of  the  Lord/  and  intent  upon  His 
Father^s  business;  a  young  man,  quiet,  modest, 
unobtrusive,  calmly  preparing  Himself  for  the 
business  of  His  after-life;  and  finally  a  man, 
^  toiling,  rejoicing,  sorrowing,^  bravely  fighting 
lifers  great  battles,  and  bent  on  finishing  the  work 
that  was  given  Him  to  do.  And  He  knows  and 
understands  all  about  these  several  stages  of  life. 
Let  each  of  us  lay  hold  of  the  great  privilege  of 
brotherhood  with  Him,  claiming  His  sympathy 
and  help,  setting  His  high  example  before  us, 
and  aspiring  to  walk  in  His  footsteps.     ^  For  we 


146  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

have  not  an  High  Priest  that  cannot  be  touched 
with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities;  but  was  in 
all  points    tempted  like  as  we  are^  yet  without 


VII. 

THE  WORK  AND  GLORY  OF  THE  SAVIOUR. 

A  MONG  other  objections  which  infidels  have 
taken^  but  vainly  taken_,  to  the  divinity  of  the 
Bible_,  one  has  been  the  mysteries  it  contained. 
Here,  driven  from  one  post  to  another,  some  have 
taken  their  last  stand ;  entrenching  themselves  in 
that  as  in  a  strong  and  impregnable  position.  The 
Bible,  they  affirm,  cannot  be  a  revelation  from  God, 
because  it  contains  unintelligible  statements;  doc- 
trines which  man  finds  it  impossible  to  compre- 
hend. To  such  an  objection  it  would  not  be  easy 
to  find  a  more  conclusive  reply  than  the  answer 
of  a  plain,  humble  Christian.  Dexterously  turn- 
ing the  infidePs  artillery  against  himself^  he  con- 
verted  his  objection  to   the  Scriptures  into  an 


1 48  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

argument  for  their  truth.  ^  Not  comprehend  ?  * 
he  repHed ;  *^  I  would  not  beheve  the  Bible  to  be 
the  word  of  God^  if  it  contained  nothing  but  what 
I  could  fully  comprehend  ! ' 

There  is  great  force  in  this  remark.  For  the 
Bible  were  unlike  the  other  works  of  God,  if  it 
came  in  all  respects  within  the  grasp  of  our  limited 
understandings.  There  are  mysteries  in  God's 
w^orks  as  great  as  any  to  be  found  in  His  word. 
Take  an  example.  In  reproaching  the  children 
of  Israel  for  their  wilful  and  wicked  ignorance, 
Jeremiah  exclaim s_,  '  The  stork  in  the  heavens 
knoweth  her  appointed  times,  and  the  turtle  and 
the  crane  and  the  swallow  know  the  time  of  their 
coming;  but  my  people  know  not  the  judgment 
of  the  Lord.'  In  birds  of  passage,  which  always 
travel  with  the  sun,  every  summer  brings  us 
visitors  from  southern  climes  ;  and,  as  they  roost 
amid  the  palm-groves  of  Asia,  or  sport  on  the 
banks  of  the  Nile,  how  do  they  know  that,  in  a 
few  more  days  or  weeks,  the  snows  shall  have 
melted  from  our  fields,  and  ice-bound  streams,  set 


CHRIS TS  WORK  AND  GLORY.  149 

0 

loose,  will  be  rushing  merrily  to  the  sea^  and  the 
sun  shining  through  long  summer  days  on  our 
distant  isle  ?  By  what  means  do  they  know,  not 
only  when  to  come,  but  how  to  come  ?  What  a 
mystery  is  there  !  In  sailing  to  a  remote  foreign 
land,  man  has  to  provide  himself  with  chart  and 
compass.  Now  he  takes  observations  in  the 
heavens,  and  now  sounds  the  ocean  with  deep-sea 
lead ;  by  day  and  night  the  steersman  stands  silent 
by  the  helm,  and  the  watch  tread  the  deck ;  and 
yet,  notwithstanding  all  their  science,  and  skill, 
and  care,  men  often  miss  the  desired  haven,  and 
perish^  wrecked  amid  the  angry  breakers  of  an 
unknown  shore.  Look  now  at  the  voyage  of  a 
bird  of  passage  !  For  many  hundred  or  thousand 
miles  it  cleaves  its  course  through  the  pathless  air, 
without  compass,  or  chart,  or  pilot  to  guide  its 
flight;  onward  it  goes  through  the  wildest  storms, 
through  densest  fogs,  and  the  darkness  of  starless 
nights ;  yet — a  fact  well  ascertained,  but  a  mys- 
tery inexplicable — it  returns  over  seas  and  lands 
and  rivers  and  mountains  to  the  very  spot  and 


1 50  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

home  of  its  birth !  What  more  inexpUcable  in 
the  word  of  God  than  we  have  here  ?  It  is  past 
finding  out.  How  absurd,  then,  to  make  its  mys- 
teries an  objection  to  the  divinity  of  the  Bible  ! 
If  not  in  these  things  only,  but  in  the  painting  of 
every  flower,  in  the  shaping  of  every  leaf,  in  the 
shooting  of  every  blade  of  grass — 

'  God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way, 
His  wonders  to  perform,' 

need  we  start  at  finding  mysteries  in  the  great 
work  of  Redemption  ? — at  an  Apostle,  as  he  con- 
templates it,  holding  up  his  hands  in  wonder  to 
exclaim,  ^  Great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness,  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh  ?  ^  This  grand  mystery,  the 
person  of  Him  who  was  both  God  and  man,  we 
have  had  already  under  consideration ;  and  we 
would  now  turn  with  believing,  loving,  adoring 
eyes  to  contemplate  His  Work  and  Glory. 

In  the  cell  where  a  captive  had  lain  long  im- 
mured, I  have  seen  the  successive  days  of  his 
imprisonment  scored  with  a  nail  on  the  naked 
walls — as  each  passed,  and  brought  his  sentence 


CHRIS rS  WORK  AND  GLORY.  151 

nearer  to  a  close,  he  marked  it  off;  giving  God 
thanks  that  another  day  was  gone.  Alas  for  them 
whoj  rejecting  the  mercy  of  a  gracious  God,  are 
cast  into  outer  darkness !  No  such  employment 
occupies  their  attention,  or  alleviates  the  misery 
of  their  lot.  The  crown  never  fades  on  the  brow 
of  saints — the  joys  at  God^s  right  hand  are  for 
evermore;  and  for  evermore  also  is  their  doom, 
who,  preferring  their  sins  to  Jesus,  resist  alike  the 
sweet  attractions  of  His  cross  and  the  awful  terrors 
of  His  law — their  worm  never  dieth,  and  their  fire 
is  never  quenched, 

In  eternity  there  are  neither  years,  nor  days, 
nor  hours;  yet  there  have  been  two  hours  in 
time  which  are  drawn  out,  if  I  may  say  so, 
over  the  length  of  eternal  ages.  One,  that  hour, 
pregnant  of  evil,  when  Eve,  tempted  of  the  devil, 
plucked  the  forbidden  fruit,  and  the  fall  ensued. 
The  sea  wastes  its  fury  on  the  shore,  and  after 
raging  for  a  while,  falls  asleep  like  a  fretful  child ; 
continents  limit  the  range  and  ravages  of  earth- 
quakes ;  the  grave,  where  the  wicked  cease  from 


152  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at  rest,  sets  bounds 
to  the  power  of  the  oppressor;  but  Hmited  in  its 
influence  to  no  place,  or  age,  or  race  of  men,  the 
shock  of  that  fall  w^as  felt  throughout  all  the 
world.  Nor  shall  its  consequences  cease  with 
the  world,  and  with  time.  When  this  old  world 
shall  be  no  more,  and  time  shall  be  lost  in 
eternity,  and  death  itself  shall  die,  that  unhappy 
hour  shall  live  in  the  memory,  and  be  felt  in  the 
misery  of  the  lost. 

The  other  hour,  pregnant  with  greatest  good, 
as  the  first  was  with  greatest  evil,  to  the  world, 
one  which,  more  than  any  in  the  whole  course  of 
ages,  has  occupied  the  attention  and  excited  the 
expectations  of  earth,  and  hell,  and  heaven  too, 
was  that  our  Lord  pointed  at  when  He  said,  ^  The 
hour  is  come  when  the  Son  of  Man  should  be 
glorified.'  There,  as  is  plain  from  the  words  that 
follow,  ^Verily,  verily,  except  a  corn  of  wheat 
fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone; 
but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit,^  Jesus 
refers  to  His  approaching  death.     In  that  hour. 


CHRISTS  WORK  AND  GLORY.  153 

His  great  work,  to  use  His  own  last  words_,  was 
'  finished/  and  the  head  He  bowed  in  death  was 
crowned  with  its  brightest  glory. 

I.  There  were  circumstances  of  visible  glory 
attending  our  Lord's  death.  Apart  from  the 
spiritual  blessings  which  flow  to  us  from  it_,  and 
apart  also  from  the  revenue  of  glory  Christ  de- 
rives from  the  Church,  both  in  earth  and  heaven, 
which  He  has  redeemed  by  His  blood,  there  never 
was  a  death  like  His.  It  is  as  true  that  never 
man  died  as  He  died,  as  that  never  man  spake  as 
He  spake.  Rays  of  Godhead  streamed  through 
the  darkest  scenes  of  His  humiliation;  or  lent 
these  such  splendour  as  the  sun  imparts  to  the 
edges  of  the  murky  cloud  that  conceals  His  face. 
Jesus  was  born,  like  any  other  child,  but  the 
fruit  of  a  virgin's  womb.  Angels  attended  and 
celebrated  with  songs  the  great  event.  Humble 
as  was  His  birth-place,  a  new  star  rested  above 
the  stable;  and  divine  worship,  offered  by  the 
manger  where  He  lay,  gave  dignity  to  the  lowly 
scene.     His  hands  were  rough  with  labour;  but 


1 54  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

Sit  their  touch  eyes  received  their  sight,,  and  the 
dead  were  restored  to  hfe.  His  voice  had  been 
heard  in  the  wails  of  infancy,  and  also  in  dying 
groans;  but  it  quelled  the  roaring  storm^  and 
burst  the  ancient  fetters  of  the  tomb.  His  eye 
was  quenched  in  darkness^  fixed  and  filmy  as  He 
hung  on  the  tree ;  but  it  had  read  the  secrets  of 
man^s  heart,  and  penetrated  the  veil  of  futurity. 
He  did  not  walk  the  world  in  costly  robes,  or  in 
imperial  purple;  but  the  hem  of  his  garment,  at 
the  touch  of  faith,  cured  inveterate  disease.  He 
did  not  tread  on  luxurious  carpets ;  but  His  step 
was  on  the  billows  of  the  sea.  Unaccustomed  to 
luxuries.  His  simple  drink  was  water  from  the 
well ;  but  water  changed  to  wine  at  His  bidding. 
No  lordly  halls  received,  or  sumptuous  banquets 
entertained.  His  guests;  but  the  few  fishes  and 
five  barley  loaves  of  the  mountain-feast  were  suf- 
ficient, in  His  hands,  to  satisfy  the  wants  of 
thousands,  and  leave,  of  fragments,  twelve  baskets 
over. 

The  glory  that  shone  through  many  of  the 


CHRIST'S  WORK  AND  GLORY.  155 

most  humiliating  scenes  of  His  life  was  still  more 
apparent  in  its  closing  hours.  Men  had  left 
nothing  undone  to  heap  shame  on  His  dying 
headj  and  aggravate  by  disgrace  the  bitterness  of 
death.  To  pour  contempt  on  His  kingly  claims 
they  crowned  His  brows  with  thorns ;  in  mockery 
of  His  omniscience^  when  they  had  blindfolded, 
they  buffeted  Him — asking  whose  was  the  hand 
that  struck  Him  ;  in  ridicule  of  His  omnipotence, 
when  they  had  nailed  Him  to  the  cross_,  they 
challenged  Him  to  leave  it — crying,  with  gibes 
and  insults_,  and  a  cruelty  His  dying  face  had  no 
power  to  soften,  ^  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God, 
come  down  !  ^  ^  He  saved  others  ;  himself  he 
cannot  save.-*  Yet  even  in  this  dark  hour,  when 
He  was  sinking  into  death  under  a  cloud  of  shame 
and  ignominy,  see  how  the  Son  of  man  was 
glorified  !  To  the  Pharisees  who,  as  He  approached 
Jerusalem  amid  a  gleam  of  passing  popularity, 
and  attended  by  a  mighty  crowd  that  hailed  Him 
as  their  King,  had  asked  Him  to  silence  the 
hosannas  of  the  people.  He  had  said,  '  If  these 


1 56  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 


should  hold  their  peace,  the  stones  would  imme- 
diately cry  out/  No  empty  boast !  By-and-by 
that  multitude  melted  away  like  a  snow-wreath — 
like  a  flock  of  sheep  when^  crouching  to  the 
spring,  the  lion,  with  a  bound  and  roar,  leaps  into 
the  fold,  the  disciples  have  fled;  and,  save  a  dying 
robber  that  confesses  our  Lord,  all  men  hold 
their  peace.  But  now  events  happen  more  won- 
derful than  ancient  story  relates  of  a  dumb  son 
who  had  followed  his  father  to  battle.  Seeing 
him  struck  down,  lying  on  the  ground  with  a 
sword  pointed  at  his  breast,  they  tell  how,  under 
the  sudden  impulse  of  aflfection  and  of  alarm  for 
his  father^s  life,  he  burst  the  string  that  tied  his 
tongue,  and  cried  out  in  terror.  So  when  at 
Jesus^s  death  all  men  held  their  peace,  dumb 
nature  spake.  The  rocks,  whose  bosoms,  less 
hard  than  man^s,  were  rent,  cried  out  on  earth ; 
the  sun,  veilincr  his  face  from  a  scene  on  which 
insensate  men  looked  without  emotion,  cried  out 
in  heaven ;  the  dead,  disturbed  in  their  graves  by 
so   great   a   crime,   cried    out   from    their    open 


CHRIST'S  WORK  AND  GLORY.  157 

tombs;  and  the  temple,  with  its  veil^  though 
touched  by  no  mortal  hands_,  rent  in  twain  from 
top  to  bottom,  added  its  solemn  testimony  to 
theirs;  and  dying  amid  these  strange,  impressive, 
and  transcendent  wonders,  in  that  of  His  death 
the  hour  had  come  when  the  Son  of  man  was 
glorified. 

2.  Christ^s  death  afforded  the  fullest  display 
of  His  mercy,  grace,  and  truth. 

Not  that  they  had  not  been  displayed  before — 
as  in  the  wilderness,  through  which  the  pillar, 
symbol  of  His  presence,  their  grateful  shade  by 
day  and  their  light  by  night,  guided  and  guarded 
the  wandering  host — as  by  the  sea,  whose  waves 
rushed  foaming  and  thundering  together  at  His 
word  to  engulf  beneath  their  waters  the  pride 
and  power  of  Egypt — as  on  that  desert  with  its 
barren  sands  covered  day  by  day,  for  forty  years, 
with  corn  dropped  from  dewy  skies — as  beside 
that  gray  rock  which  poured  streams  from  its 
flinty  bosom — as  on  that  awful  mountain  which 
flamed  like  a  volcano  at  His  touch,  and,  strikirig 


158  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

the  boldest  with  awe,  shook  with  His  thunders 
and  trembled  beneath  His  feet.  In  these,  and  in 
many  other  events,  the  forefathers  of  those  who 
rejected  our  Lord  had  been  the  witnesses  of  His 
glory.  He  was  the  God  of  Sinai — the  Captain 
of  the  host — the  Angel  of  the  Covenant ;  and  for 
ages  they  had  read  in  the  Bible,  and  celebrated 
in  the  songs  of  the  sanctuary,  the  wonders  He 
had  done  in  the  days  of  their  fathers,  and  in  the 
old  times  before  them. 

Yet  not  till,  veiling  His  divine  splendours, 
the  Son  of  God  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  man, 
and,  giving  Himself  up  to  death,  expired  amid 
the  agonies  of  a  cross,  were  His  love  and  mercy, 
His  pity.  His  purpose  and  His  power  to  save, 
fully  disclosed.  It  was  when  Moses  smote  the 
rock  that  its  hidden  treasures  were  unsealed ;  and 
the  people,  pressing  eagerly  forward — sons  bear- 
ing aged  parents  on  their  shoulders,  and  mothers 
infants  in  their  happy  arms — heard  the  sweetest 
music  in  its  liquid  murmurs,  and  drank  life  in  its 
cold  gushing  stream.     It  was  when  the  alabaster 


CHRIS rs  WORK  AND  GLORY.  159 

box  was  brokeu  that  its  value  became  known, 
and  its  aroma,  rising  from  the  head  and  feet  of 
Jesus,  was  diffused  throughout  all  the  house.  It 
is  when  the  clusters  of  the  grape,  borne  with 
songs  from  the  vineyard  by  bright  and  happy 
maidens,  are  crushed  in  the  wine-press,  and  trod- 
den under  foot,  that  they  yield  the  wdne  which, 
used  for  sacred  and  also  common  purposes,  was 
said  to  ^make  glad  the  heart  both  of  God  and 
man/  Nor  were  Christ^s  gracious  attributes. 
His  love  to  poor  sinners  and  His  power  to  save 
them,  fully  disclosed  till  His  dying  hour;  till  He 
entered  the  garden  where,  sinking  under  the  load 
of  a  world^s  guilt,  He  cried,  '  My  soul  is  exceed- 
ing sorrowful,  even  unto  death  j^  till  He  hung  on 
that  cross  where  He  poured  out  His  precious 
blood  a  sacrifice  for  sin — dying  the  just  for  the 
unjust. 

Had  Jesus  never  died,  nor  heaven,  nor  hell, 
nor  earth  had  ever  known  how  He  loved  :  nor 
had  we,  unable  to  imagine  the  degree  and  extent 
of  His    divine  compassion,  been   constrained  to 


1 60  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 


exclaim_,  ^  O  the  height  and  depth^  the  breadth 
and  lengthy  of  the  love  of  God  ! — it  passeth  know- 
ledge/ No  exaggeration  this  !  Allying  us  more 
closely  to  God  than  the  angels  are — since  His 
Son  took  not  on  Him  the  nature  of  angels,  but 
the  nature  of  man — and  making  these  heavenly 
spirits  our  ministering  servants^  this  love  is 
' higher  than  heaven:'  saving;  in  us  those  more 
guilty  than  devils  are — since  the  devils  never  once 
rejected  the  Son  of  God,  nor  turned  a  deaf  ear  to 
the  voice  of  mercy — this  love  is  ^  deeper  than 
hell/  and  infinitely  surpassing  any  earthly  af- 
fection, the  measure  thereof  is  Monger  than  the 
earth,  and  broader  than  the  sea.' 

The  full  and  crowning  expression  of  the  love 
wherewith  God  loved  us  in  that,  while  we  were 
enemies.  He  gave  up  His  Son  to  die  for  us,  and 
wherewith  also  His  Son  loved  us  in  beins;  willino; 
to  be  given,  at  Jesus'  death  the  hour  arrived 
when,  completing  the  great  work  of  atonement, 
He  was  most  fully  glorified.  He  had  been  de- 
spised and  rejected  of  men :  He  had  been  called 


CHRISTS  WORK  AND  GLORY.  i6i 

ail  impostor^  a  blasphemer^  a  glutton^  and  a  wine- 
bibber;  neglected  of  His  own  creatures^  He  had 
seen  their  doors  shut  in  His  face,  and  been  left, 
when  the  fox  sought  his  hole  and  the  bird  dropt 
into  her  nest,  to  find  a  bed  on  the  cold  ground ; 
persecuted  in  His  cradle.  He  had  been  persecuted 
to  His  grave.  But  now  His  sorrows  are  past, 
and  His  shame  rolled  away  for  ever.  He  dies, 
but  as  a  conqueror — crowned  with  the  rich  spoils 
of  victory ;  a  victim,  but  a  victor  also — crushing 
the  head  of  the  serpent  that  had  bit  His  heel,  and 
in  the  penitent  thief  whom  He  bears  aloft  to 
heaven,  giving  us  a  proof  of  His  pity  for  the 
guilty,  and  of  His  willingness  and  power  to  save 
even  the  chief  of  sinners. 

3.  By  His  death,  our  Lord  conquered  hell,  and 
death,  and  the  grave. 

It  was  the  curse  of  Canaan,  the  descendant 
and  representative  of  Ham,  that  he  should  be  the 
servant  of  servants;  but  it  is  the  crowning  glory 
of  Jesus  that  He  became  the  conqueror  of  con- 
querors :   spoiling  principalities  and  powers,  like 


1 62  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

a  victor  returning  from  the  wars  with  monarchs 
and  princes  and  captains  bound  to  his  chariot. 
He  made  a  show  of  them  openly.  For  forty  days 
the  haucrhtv  Phihstine  came  forth  to  challeno-e 
the  armies  of  the  hving  God  ;  crying,  as  he  stalked 
out  into  the  intervening  meadow,  and  shook  his 
plumes  and  spear  in  triumph,  ^  I  defy  Israel !  Give 
me  a  man  that  we  may  fight  together !  ^  And 
since  the  fall,  when  Satan  worsted  our  first  parents, 
and  laid  their  honour  in  the  dust,  for  forty  long 
centuries  he  had  proudly  held  the  field.  No  man 
had  proved  a  match  for  him.  In  Noah,  and 
Abraham,  and  Moses,  and  David,  the  very  chiefs 
and  standard-bearers  of  God^s  host  had  fallen ; 
before  his  power  and  devilish  subtlety,  one  after 
another  bit  the  dust :  nor  had  anv  been  delivered 
from  his  cruel  hand,  but  as  Israel,  when  God, 
making  a  way  of  escape  for  His  people,  opened 
the  gates  of  the  sea,  and  snatched  them  from  the 
grasp  of  Egypt. 

But  now  the  hour  has  come  when  this  proud 
adversary  of  God  and  man  has  his  challenge  ac- 


CHRISTS  WORK  AND  GLORY.  163 

cepted.  David^s  Son  is  buckling  for  the  fight; 
angels  are  gathered  on  the  battlements  of  heaven 
to  watch  its  fortunes,  and  see  the  issue;  each  ad- 
vancing from  his  own  ranks,  the  Prince  of  Light 
and  the  Prince  of  Darkness  meet.  Foiled  at  all 
points,  met  with  his  match  now,  and  more  than 
his  match,  Satan  is  baffled  and  borne  back :  and 
yet — for  such  was  the  divine  decree,  the  claims  of 
justice,  the  price  of  victory — our  Champion  falls; 
but  falls  like  Samson.  He  bows  Himself  on  the 
pillars  of  His  adversary's  kingdom — by  His  own 
death  destroying  Death,  and  him  that  had  the 
power  of  death,  that  is,  the  Devil.  The  Devil ! — 
he  had  seduced  angels  from  their  loyalty,  and  had 
raised  the  shout  of  victory  within  the  gates  of 
Eden.  Death  [ — he  had  plucked  the  crown  from 
the  brows  of  kings,  and  darkened  the  eyes  of  seers, 
and  sealed  the  lips  of  prophets,  and  mocked  the 
skill  of  man,  and  crushed  the  strength  of  giants : 
and,  as  Solomon  says,  in  the  war  with  him,  men 
had  found  ^  no  discharge.^  But  how  do  the 
fortunes    of    battle    chano;e    when    Christ,    our 


i64  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE, 

champion,  the  Captain  of  our  salvation,  coires 
into  the  field  !  Calling  out,  ^  O  death,  I  will  be 
thy  plagues  !  O  grave,  I  will  be  thy  destruction  !  ^ 
He  takes  the  prey  from  the  spoiler;  and  not  only 
in  our  souls,  washed  in  His  blood  and  sanctified  by 
His  Spirit,  redeems  the  jewel,  but  the  casket  too — 
for  that  purpose  descending  into  the  realms  of  the 
grave,  with  garments  rolled  in  blood.  The  brow 
that  bled  beneath  a  crown  of  thorns  now  wears 
the  diadem  of  victory;  and  now,  where  the  eyes 
of  men  saw  but  a  ghastly  spectacle,  a  mangled 
body  suspended  on  a  tree,  with  the  setting  sun 
lighting  up  its  dead,  defaced,  and  pallid  counten- 
ance^ faith  beholds  the  triumph  of  redeeming  love 
— the  crowning  work  and  glory  of  the  Son  of 
God ;  and  pointing  to  that  sacred  form  which 
has  death  and  the  serpent  lying  crushed  beneath 
its  feet,  she  addresses  men  and  angels,  saying, 
'  Sing  unto  the  Lord,  for  he  hath  triumphed  glo- 
riously :  thy  right  hand,  O  Lord,  hath  dashed  the 
enemy  in  pieces/ 

The  work  of  our  Saviour  was  essentially  and 


CHRISTS  WORK  AND  GLORY.  165 

pre-eminently  that  of  a  surety  or  substitute.  Some 
affirm  that  Jesus  died  merely  as  an  example,  to 
teach  us  how  to  die.  Others,  repudiating  the 
proper  idea  of  an  atonement,  and  emasculating  a 
doctrine  which  they  profess  to  hold,  regard  his 
death  as  nothing  more  than  an  expression  of  the 
love  of  God  to  a  fallen  world.  But  unless  our 
blessed  Lord  assumed  our  nature  that  He  might, 
besides  fulfilling  the  requirements  of  the  law,  bear 
in  some  proper  sense,  and  in  our  room  and  stead, 
the  punishment  due  to  sin,  by  what  rule  are  we  to 
interpret  the  language  of  Scripture  ?  Were  it 
otherwise,  what  language  more  misleading,  more 
calculated  to  mislead,  than  these  declarations  ? — 
^  I  am  the  good  shepherd  ;  the  good  shepherd 
giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep;  I  lay  down  my  life 
for  the  sheep  ^ — '  God  commendeth  his  love 
toward  us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us^— ^If,  when  we  were  enemies, 
we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of 
his  Son,  much  more  being  reconciled,  we  shall 
be  saved  by  his  life' — '  Surely  he  hath  borne  our 


1 66  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

griefs_,  and  carried  our  sorrows;  he  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions,  he  was  bruised,  for  our  ini- 
quities ;  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon 
him_,  and  with  his  stripes  we  are  healed/ 

As  is  plain  from  these  words,  Jesus  had  to  en- 
dure in  our  stead  the  penalty  due  to  sin,  and  die 
for  us,  as  the  bleeding  victim  of  old  for  him  who 
offered  it  on  the  altar.  Therefore  it  was,  that  they 
who  knew  not  what  they  did  when  they  crucified 
the  Lord  of  glory,  knew  not  what  they  said  when 
they  cast  this  cruel  taunt  in  his  face,  *  He  saved 
others,  himself  he  cannot  save  !  ^  This  was  true ; 
but  not  for  the  reason  they  supposed.  He  could 
have  saved  Himself — descending  from  the  cross  to 
take  summary  vengeance  on  His  foes  ;  or  as  Sam- 
son did  with  the  ponderous  gates  of  Gaza,  carry 
it  away — rise  before  their  astonished  eyes,  and 
bear  it  to  heaven  as  a  trophy  of  His  power.  What 
then  ?     Alas  !  we  had  been  left  to  perish. 

The  case  may  be  in  some  measure  illustrated 
by  what  happened  in  the  terrible  dilemma  in  which 
two  miners  once  found  themselves.     They  were 


CHRIST'S  WORK  AND  GLORY.  167 

engaged  blasting  a  rock  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 
I'he  chamber  for  the  powder  bored^  they  charge 
it;  and  having  lighted  the  hissing  match^  they 
take  to  flighty  hurrying  to  the  bottom  of  the  shaft, 
to  throw  themselves  into  the  basket,  and  give 
the  signal  to  be  drawn  up  out  of  reach,  not  of 
danger  only,  but  of  death.  Alas,  the  wheel  turns 
not.  The  man  at  the  top  of  the  shaft  is  able  to 
raise  one,  but  not  both.  Every  moment  the  fire 
may  reach  the  powder,  and  blow  them  into  eter- 
nity. There  they  sit;  pale^  speechless,  helpless, 
looking  each  other  in  the  face  ;  and  death  staring 
grimly  at  them  both.  Both  must  die,  unless  one, 
sacrificing  himself  to  save  his  comrade,  leap  from 
the  basket.  It  was  done — promptly,  nobly  done. 
They  were,  and  yet  were  not,  in  equal  danger. 
One  is  a  man  of  God;  the  other  a  graceless, 
prayerless  profligate.  Calmly  addressing  his 
wicked  companion,  '  I  know,'  said  the  first,  '  if 
you  die,  you  go  to  hell ;  but  knowing  in  whom  I 
have  believed,  death  shall  be  gain  to  me.'  So 
bidding  the  other  farewell,  a  Christian  hero,  he 


1 68  SA  VI NG  KNO  WLEDGE. 

le.ips  from  the  basket;  and  leaving  it  to  rise,  sits 
down  to  pray  and  die.  Here,  though  I  may  re- 
mark that  this  man  himself  escaped  death  by  a 
singular  providence,  he  saved  the  other,  but  him- 
self also  he  could  not  save;  and  as  there  was  there 
a  physical  impossibility  of  saving  both,  there  is 
here  a  moral  one.  The  justice  of  God  which 
awarded  the  penalty  of  death  to  sin  must  be  satis- 
fied :  the  law  of  God  which  required  perfect  obedi- 
ence must  be  magnified  :  the  substitute  or  the 
sinner  therefore  must  die;  and  Jesus  died,  the 
just  for  the  unjust,  that  we  might  be  saved — that 
whosoever  believeth  on  Him  might  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life. 

The  object  of  our  faith,  to  whose  righteous- 
ness, rejecting  all  confidence  in  our  own,  we  trust, 
Jesus  is  also  to  be  the  object  of  our  imitatioa — 
our  pattern  as  well  as  our  propitiation.  There- 
fore they  that  are  Christ's  live  not  /o,  any  more 
than  they  live  through,  themselves;  the  rule  of 
their  life,  the  motto  blazoned  on  their  banner, 
not  self-indulgence,  but  self-denial.     The  specta- 


CHRISTS  WORK  AND  GLORY.      '     169 

tors  who,  drawn  to  roof  and  window  by  the  roar 
and  tumult,  looked  down  on  the  passing  crowd  as 
it  hurried  on  to  Calvary,  knew  Jesus  by  the  cross 
on  His  shoulder,  and  the  thorns  on  His  bleedinir 
brow.  One  eagerly  pointing  Him  out  to  another 
— some  with  scorn  on  their  lips,  others  with  a 
tear  in  their  eye — Yon  is  He,  they  cried,  who 
looks  so  meek,  and  patient,  and  gentle,  with  a 
cross  on  his  back  and  a  crown  of  thorns  on  his 
brow  !  And  still  we  may  know  the  servant  by 
the  Master's  livery.  W  ho  is  mocked  by  an  un- 
godly world  ?  who  blesses  them  that  curse  Him  ? 
who  returns  good  for  evil  ?  who  is  patient  with 
the  bad  ?  who  toils  and  labours,  spends  and  is 
spent,  lives  and  perhaps  dies  for  others,  forgetful 
of  himself?  By  the  tokens  whereby  they  recog- 
nized the  Master,  I  recognize  the  man.  If  we 
can  sit  at  ease  while  others  are  perishing  around 
us — if  we  can  lie  on  a  flowery  bank,  basking  in 
the  gladsome  sunshine,  without  taking  any  in- 
terest in  others,  or  stretching  out  a  hand  to  pluck 
them  from  the  torrent  that  sweeps  them  on  to 


1 70  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

ruin^  it  matters  not  to  what  church  we  belon"-. 
We  belong  not  to  Christ — we  are  none  of  His. 
As  much  as  to  murderers,  adulterers,  drunk- 
ards, and  thiev^es,  ^  Depart  from  me,  I  have  never 
known  you,^  is  the  language  He  shall  hold  to 
all  whose  hfe-maxim  is  expressed  in  such  words 
as  these,  ^Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?^ — let  souls 
perish,  so  I  be  rich — let  others  suffer,  so  I  enjoy 
myself — '^  Soul,  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  and  be 
merry.'  Unless  the  same  mind  be  in  you  that 
was  in  Jesus  Christ,  ye  are  none  of  His.  Paul 
said,  ^  Christ  liveth  in  me^ — language  which  His 
humblest,  weakest  follower  can  hold  as  well  as 
that  great  apostle.  The  beautiful  incarnation  of 
all  that  was  lofty  in  aim,  tender  in  sympathy, 
generous  in  heart,  pure  in  life,  self- forgetful,  and 
self-denying,  Jesus  Himself  is  the  fair  copy  which 
\  Christians,  through  the  aids  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 

\  are  to  attempt  to  imitate.  ^  If  any  man,^  He  said, 
'  would  be  my  disciple,  let  him  take  up  his  cross, 
deny  himself  daily,  and  follow  me.' 


VIII. 

THE  WAY  OF  SALVATION. 

OOME  Scripture  terms  are  forensic.  Such  are 
the  expressions  justified  and  cojidemned. 
Eniployed  in  courts  of  law,  they  call  up  to  our 
minds  the  scene  of  a  trial — the  crowd  of  eager 
spectators;  the  prisoner  standing  alone,  pale  and 
anxious^  at  the  bar;  the  judges  seated  aloft  in  im- 
posing state;  the  heavy  indictment;  the  long 
array  of  witnesses;  the  sudden  and  breathless 
silence,,  amid  which — all  bending  forward  to  catch 
their  words — the  jury  return  into  court  with  their 
verdict;  the  verdict  itself,  the  Not  Guilty  or 
Guilty,  that  sends  the  accused  away  to  life  and 
liberty,  or,  falling  from  reluctant  lips,  and  going 


172  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

like  a  knife  to  his  heart_,  sends  him  to  the  scaffold 
and  seals  his  doom.  The  expressions  ^justified  ' 
and  ^  condemned/  therefore,  forewarn  us  of  a  day 
when,  with  God  for  his  judge,  an  assembled  world 
for  spectators,  and  heaven  or  hell  for  his  destiny, 
every  man  shall  be  put  upon  his  trial ;  judged  ac- 
cording to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  whether 
they  were  good  or  evil.  ^  It  is  appointed,^  says 
an  Apostle,  '  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  this 
the  judgment/ 

A  solemn,  but  a  certain  prospect ! — for  none 
may  hope  to  escape  this  ordeal.  Universal  as  the 
sentence,  judgment  is  inevitable  as  the  scythe  of 
death.  It  is  often  wonderful  to  see  how  human 
justice  tracks  the  steps  and  doublings  of  a  guilty 
fugitive,  like  a  sleuth-hound;  and  how,  with  an 
arm  that  stretches  over  broad  continents  and  seas, 
she  will  drag  him  to  her  bar  from  his  hiding-place 
in  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Yet,  cases  ever  and 
anon  occur  where  the  gallows,  if  I  may  use  the 
expression,  is  cheated  of  its  due,  and  the  perpe- 
trators of  crimes  that  have  struck   society  with 


THE  WAY  OF  SALVATION.  173 

horror  escape  detection,  or  elude  the  keenest  pur- 
suit. But  escape  from  God  and  His  judgment  is 
impossible.  Reconciled  to  Him  through  the 
blood  of  His  Son,  and  recognizing  their  Saviour  in 
the  Judge  before  whose  face — as  He  comes  with 
ten  times  ten  thousand  angels — the  heavens  flee 
away,  God^s  people  would  not  escape  though  they 
could ;  and  as  to  His  enemies,  who  vainly  cry  on 
the  mountains  and  rocks  to  cover  them^  they 
could  not  though  they  would.  What  says  one 
who  may  be  supposed,  under  a  sense  of  guilt  and 
dread  of  punishment,  to  have  been  racking  his 
fancy  for  a  way  to  elude  the  presence  and  escape 
the  justice  of  God  ?  ^  Whither,^  he  asks,  '  shall  I 
go  from  thy  Spirit?  Whither  shall  I  flee  from 
thy  presence  ?  If  I  ascend  up  to  heaven,  thou 
art  there ;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold,  thou 
art  also  there ;  if  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning^, 
and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  there 
shall  thy  hand  lead  me;  if  I  say.  Surely  the 
darkness  shall  cover  me,  even  the  night  shall  be 
light  about  me/     Nor  do  God^s  own  words,  any 


1 74  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

more  than  these^  leave  a  chance,  the  shadow  of  a 
hope^  the  smallest  loophole  of  escape,  to  impeni- 
tent and  unbelieving  sinners.  To  alarm  them^  to 
persuade  them  to  abandon  their  sins  and  embrace 
the  Saviour^  He  uses  the  boldest  figures.  Speak- 
ing of  the  wicked.  He  says,  '  He  that  fleeth  of 
them  shall  not  flee  away;  and  he  that  escapeth 
of  them  shall  not  be  delivered ;  though  they  dig 
into  hell,  there  shall  mine  hand  take  them; 
though  they  climb  up  to  heaven,  there  will  I  bring 
them  down ;  though  they  be  hid  from  my  sight 
in  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  there  will  I  command 
the  serpent,  and  he  shall  bite  them.' 

Another  great  difference  between  the  adminis- 
tration of  Divine  and  human  justice,  lies  in  this, 
that  while  none  shall  escape  God^s  judgment,  its 
sentence,  once  passed,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  is 
irrevocable.  A  very  weighty  and  solemn  consi- 
deration !  As  the  tree  falls,  so  it  lies ;  they  that 
are  filthy  shall  be  filthy  still,  as  they  that  are 
righteous  shall  be  righteous  still.  At  an  earthly 
tribunal  hope  sustains  the   criminal,  when,  pity 


THE  WA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  1 7  5 

taking  the  place  of  horror^  every  eye  regards  him 
with  sorrow_,  and  the  voice  of  the  judge  trembles 
with  emotion^  as^  amid  an  awful  silence,  he  pro- 
nounces the  words  of  doom.  What  though  the 
'  condemned  cell '  receives  him  now  ?  He  reads 
above  its  gloomy  door  no  such  words  as  Dante 
has  inscribed  on  the  gates  of  hell,  ^  Let  them  who 
enter  here  leave  Hope  behind  !  ^  Abandon  the 
wretch  who  may,  hope  does  not;  but  goes  with 
him  from  the  bar,  shining  into  his  heart  like  the 
sunbeam  that  falls  through  his  grated  window  on 
the  floor.  In  other  cases  justice  has  relented 
somewhat  of  her  sternness.  Why  may  she  not 
in  his?  So,  down  to  the  last  post,  and  the  last 
day,  and  the  last  hour,  clinging  to  hope  as  a 
drowning  man  to  a  plank,  many  whom  earthly 
tribunals  have  consigned  to  death,  have  illustrated 
and  verified  the  saying — 

'  As  long  as  life  its  term  extends, 
Hope's  blest  dominion  never  ends. ' 

But   despair,  more   terrible   than    the    devils  old 
painters  represent  dragging  away  the  lost,  seizes 


176  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

those  whom  God  condemns — let  me   say,   con- 
demns  reluctant.     He    is  not    willing    that  any 
should  perish ;   He  '^  so  loved  the  world  that  he 
gave  up  his  only-begotten  Son^  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  might  not  perish_,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life ;  ^  yet,  the  great  white  throne  once  set, 
the  books  once  opened,  the  sentence  once  passed, 
^  He  hath  forgotten  to  be  gracious,  and  his  mercy 
is  clean  gone  for  ever,'  it  is  idle  quarrelling  with 
that  truth  :    '^  Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth 
do  right  ? '  and  in  our  imperfect  knowledge  of  the 
Infinite  and  of  His  ways,  to  challenge  them  is  for 
the    clay  to    say  to   the  potter,  Why   hast  thou 
made  me  thus  ?     It  is  certain  that  with  salvation 
purchased    at  an  enormous  cost,   and    not   only 
freely   offered,   but   earnestly    and    affectionately 
pressed  on  the  chief  of  sinners,  we  shall  not  have 
to  blame  God,  but  ourselves,  if  we  are  lost.     It  is 
not    by    God's    hand,    but    our    own — not   from 
within,  but  from  without,  the  door  of  heaven  is 
barred.     ^Ye  will  not  come  unto  me,'  says  Jesus. 
NoWj  taking  God's  word  as  it  stands,  what  is  the 


THE  WA  Y  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  177 

plain,  practical  conclusion  to  which  the  irrevoc- 
able nature  of  the  sentence  leads,  but  this,  that 
unlike  such  as  are  arraigned  at  man's  bar,  we  are 
to  apply  for  pardon,  not  after,  but  before  our  trial 
— before  death  has  summoned,  or  the  Judge  has 
sentenced  us.  It  is  too  late  then.  Then,  in  the 
words  of  the  bridegroom  to  the  foolish  virgins, 
'The  door  is  shut! ' 

History  relates  the  story  of  a  man,  a  sagacious 
and  far-sighted  man,  whose  example  it  is  our 
safety,  our  salvation  to  follow.  He  had  com- 
mitted heinous  crimes  against  hi.s  sovereign  and 
the  state.  He  knew  his  life  to  be  forfeited ;  and 
that  if,  allowing  events  to  take  their  course,  he 
waited  to  be  tried,  he  was  certain  to  be  con- 
demned. The  case  is  exactly  ours.  In  these  cir- 
cumstances he  repaired  to  the  palace  to  fling 
himself  at  the  feet  of  his  sovereign,  and  making 
full  confession  of  his  crimes,  to  beg  for  mercy. 
Through  the  clemency  of  his  king,  and  the  inter- 
cession of  a  powerful  friend  at  court,  he  found 
mercy ;  and,  with  a  full  pardon   in   his  bosom, 


1 78  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

signed  by  the  king's  own  hand^  left  the  royal  pre- 
sence a  happy  man.  In  course  of  time,  the  day 
of  trial  arrives,  gathering  a  great  concourse  of 
people.  He  repairs  to  the  place.  Ignorant  of  his 
secret,,  anxious  friends  tremble  for  his  fate ;  and 
the  spectators  wonder  at  his  calm  and  placid 
bearing  as  he  passes  the  scaffold  where  they  think 
he  is  so  soon  to  die,  and  enters  the  court,  certain, 
as  they  fancy,  to  be  condemned.  He  steps  up  to 
the  bar  as  lightly  as  a  bridegroom  to  the  marriage 
altar;  and,  to  all  men's  surprise,  looks  boldly 
around,  on  the  court,  his  judges,  and  his  accusers. 
At  this,  however,  they  cease  to  wonder  when, 
after  listening  unmoved  to  charges  enough  to  hang 
twenty  men  in  place  of  one,  he  thrusts  his  hand 
into  his  bosom  to  draw  forth  the  pardon,  to  cast 
it  on  the  table,  and  find  himself,  amid  a  sudden 
outburst  of  joy,  locked  in  the  happy  embraces  of 
his  wnfe  and  children.  Let  us  go  and  do  likewise. 
The  bar  of  Divine  judgment  is  a  place  not  to  sue 
for  mercv,  but  to  plead  it.  Appearing  there  robed 
in  the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ,  justified,  for- 


THE  WAY  OF  SALVATION.  179 

liven,  in  our  hands  a  pardon  signed  and  sealed 
with  bloody  we  shall  look  around  us  undismayed 
on  all  the  terrors  of  the  scene — to  ask  with  Paul, 
'  Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God^s 
elect?  It  is  God  that  justifieth  ;  who  is  he  that 
condemneth  ?  ^ 

I  remark  that  the  way  of  salvation  lies  in 
being  justif]ed_,  not  through  our  own,  but  im- 
puted righteousness. 

^All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray^ — ^  The 
Scripture  hath  concluded  all  under  sin^ — 'By  the 
offence  of  one,  judgment  came  upon  all  men 
unto  condemnation  ' — '■  Death  passed  upon  all 
men,  for  that  all  have  sinned  ^ — *^  Cursed  is  every 
one  that  continueth  not  in  all  things  written  in  the 
book  of  the  law  to  do  them^ — these,  the  words 
of  Scripture,  sound  like  the  clank  of  fetters.  In 
^:he  face  of  such  declarations,  what  folly  is  it  in  a 
man  to  attempt  to  beguile  his  conscience ;  to 
quiet  its  fears ;  persuading  himself  that,  safe  in 
the  mercy  from  the  justice  of  God,  he  has  no 
need  to  be  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  death  and 


1 80  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

judgment !  Would  that  these  words  spoke  as 
pointedly  to  our  hearts  as  they  speak  plainly  to 
our  ears!  Guilt  has  been  incurred;  there  is  a 
judgment  to  come,  and  a  pressing  necessity,  if 
there  be  a  way  of  escape_,  that  we  should  take  it ; 
take  it  now ;  take  it  at  whatever  cost — as  our 
Lord  says,  plucking  out  a  right  eye,  and  cutting 
off  a  right  hand,  and  losing  our  life  that  we  may 
find  it. 

There  is  such  a  way  ;  but  certainly  not  by  the 
works  of  the  law.  In  perfect  harmony  with  Him 
who  pronounces  our  ^  righteousnesses  to  be  filthy 
rags/  Paul  says,  '  By  the  deeds  of  the  law  shall 
no  flesh  be  justified  ;  ^  and  in  that  sets  up  such  a 
notice  as  turns  one  back  from  a  road  where, 
though  once  frequented,  the  grass,  growing  rank 
and  tall,  has  obliterated  every  footmark.  Ever 
since  the  Fall,  the  gate  to  heaven  by  the  law  has 
stood  shut,  nor  once  turned  on  its  hinges ;  the 
rust  of  long  ages  there,  and  over  it  a  notice — 
^No  passage  this  way.^  Yet,  blessed  be  God, 
there  is  a  way  of  return  to  His  favour,  forgive- 


THE  WA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  1 8 1 

ness,  and  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Harlots^  pub- 
hcans^  and  sinners  have  found  it;  and  why  may 
not  we  ?  To  make  it^  God^s  Son  became  a  man, 
taking  to  Himself  a  body  that  He  might  be 
capable  of  suffering ; — eyes  to  weep  ;  a  brow  to 
bleed  beneath  the  thorns ;  feet  and  hands,  that, 
with  the  iron  driven  through  the  quivering  flesh, 
He  might  hang,  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  on  the  accursed 
tree.  He  was  made  under  the  law  for  the  very 
purpose  of  answering  its  demands,  both  in  the 
way  of  doing  and  of  suffering.  He  became  a  man 
for  the  very  purpose  of  being  a  man  of  sorrows; 
and  shared  in  our  nature  for  the  very  purpose  of 
suffering  in  our  stead.  There  is  a  story  of  a 
brave  sacrifice  once  made  to  save  the  life  of  a 
king.  The  battle  had  gone  against  him.  Separ- 
ated by  accident  from  his  followers,  he  was  hard 
bested ;  a  swarm  of  foes  pressed  on  him — their 
swords  ringing  on  his  helmet,  and  each  eager  to 
obtain  the  honours  that  were  to  reward  his  cap- 
ture or  death.  He  dies  unless  some  one  will  die 
in   his   room.      A   chivalrous    follower  sees   the 


1 82  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

peril ;  spurs  his  horse  into  the  thick  of  the  foe, 
shouting,  as  he  whirled  his  bloody   battle-blade 
above   his   head,   ^  I    am    the   king ! '    and    thus 
turned  against  his  own  bosom  the  swords  that 
had   otherwise  been   buried  in  his  master^s.     A  |i 
generous,  heroic  sacrifice  1  yet  but  a  faint  shadow  !■ 
of  what  He  offered  who  laid  down  His  life  a  ran-  ^. 
som,    not   for    His    friends,    but    His    enemies;   ] 
dying,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  we  might  be 
saved. 

Distinguished  in  death  as  in  His  life  and 
divine  nature  from  all  other  men,  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  in  dying,  did  not  pay  the  debt  of  nature, 
or,  as  it  may  be  properly  called,  the  debt  of  sin, 
for  Himself.  He  did  not  die  because  He  was  a 
sinner,  but  a  substitute  ;  because  He  was  a  debt- 
or, but  a  surety — all  the  sufferings  borne  by  Him 
from  His  cradle  to  the  grave  being  ours,  the  pay- 
ment of  debts  incurred  by  us  and  undertaken  by 
Him.  Fulfilling  all  the  precepts  it  enjoined,  and 
paying  all  the  penalties  it  required.  He  rendered  a 
perfect  obedience  to  the  Divine  law.     This  con- 


THE  IV A  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  1 83 

stitiites  His  righteoiisness_,  or  merits  ;  and  since 
God  is  pleased  to  accept  that  in  lack  and  place  of 
ours,  there  can  be  no  condemnation  for  those 
who,  rejecting  all  confidence  in  their  own  right- 
eousness to  trust  in  His,  are  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
prove  themselves  to  be  so  by  walking,  not  after 
the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit. 

How  there  not  only  is,  but  can  he  no  con- 
demnation for  them,  I  may  illustrate  by  the  case 
of  two  Greeks  whom  friendship  had  bound  in  the 
most  endearing  ties.  One,  condemned  to  die  for 
some  offence,  wishes,  ere  he  leaves  the  world,  to 
go  away  that  he  may  arrange  his  affairs,  and  see 
his  family,  and  bid  them  a  last  farewell.  In 
these  circumstances,  and  with  a  love  deserving: 
such  a  garland  as  David,  saying,  '  Very  pleasant 
hast  thou  been  unto  me,  my  brother  Jonathan  ; 
thy  love  to  me  was  wonderful,  passing  the  love 
of  women,^  laid  on  the  grave  of  Jonathan — his 
friend  undertook,  in  case  he  did  not  return,  to 
suffer  death  in  his  stead.  The  offer  was  accepted ; 
and    was    nearly    attended    with  a  tragic  result. 


1 84  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

The  day  of  doom  arrives^  but  not  the  criminal. 
Nor  was  it  till  the  very  hour  arrived^  and  the 
procession^  with  his  surety  ready  to  die^  had 
reached  the  scaffold_,  that  he_,  detained  at  sea  by 
adverse  winds^  appears ;  shouts  to  them  from 
afar  to  stay  the  execution ;  and  forcing  his  way 
through  the  crowd^  leaps  on  the  scaffold  to  push 
aside  his  substitute_,  and,  like  a  brave,  true  man, 
bare  his  own  neck  to  the  sword.  Touched  by 
the  display  of  such  tender  and  rare  affection —  j 
the  joy  of  the  one  that  he  was  in  time  to  save  his 
surety,  the  grief  of  the  other  that  he  had  lost  the  i 
opportunity  of  dying  for  his  friend — the  people,  ', 
yielding  to  a  generous  impulse,  and  in  honour  of  j^ 
such  noble  friendship,  decreed  that  neither  should  \  \ 
perish.  But  suppose  that  things  had  fallen  out  ) 
otherwise,  and  that  the  substitute  had  suffered  the 
penalty  of  the  law  before  the  true  criminal  had 
time  to  reach  the  scene,  and  arrest  the  stroke. 
What  then  ?  Why,  then  the  law  had  nothing  to 
say  to  him.  Though  guilty,  he  was  free;  and, 
as  he  looked  with  weeping  eyes  on  the  pale  face 


THE  WA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  185 

and  dead  body  of  his  generous  friend,,  he  could 
raise  his  head  to  look  around  on  spectators^  of- 
ficers, and  executioner,  saying,  ^  Who  shall  lay 
anything  to  my  charge  ?  ^  Nor  had  his  prayer 
been  granted  though,  unwilling  to  survive  his 
friend  and  prolong  a  life  that  had  lost  its  relish, 
he  had  implored  death  at  their  hands.  Since  his 
surety  had  paid  the  penalty,  the  justice  that  de- 
manded his  death  before  would  refuse  it  now. 
The  demands  of  the  law  had  been  satisfied;  and 
had  an  angry  crowd,  suspecting  that  he  had  wil- 
fully delayed  his  return,  attempted  violence 
against  his  person,  the  very  sword  that  had  been 
buried  in  the  bosom  of  the  substitute  had  been 
drawn  in  defence  of  his.  The  death  of  innocence 
had  saved  the  life  of  guilt. 

Now  as,  on  such  a  supposition,  it  had  hap- 
pened in  that  case,  it  does  happen  in  the  case  of 
all  who,  through  faith  in  our  surety,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  receive  the  righteousness  that  makes 
the  sinner  just.  His  perfect  merits  imputed  to 
them — His  work  and  sufferings  accounted  theirs 


i86  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

— the  justice  that  demanded  their  condemnation 
once  demands  their  acquittal  now ;  the  law,  with 
all  its  requirements^  now  fully  satisfied,  is  no 
longer  against,  but  for  them ;  all  Gud^s  attri- 
butes are  on  their  side  now;  and  so,  instead  of 
fleeing  from  justice,  like  Adam  when  he  fled  for. 
shelter  to  the  bush,  they  claim  protection  now 
from  their  enemies — Satan,  and  hell,  and  fear, 
and  guilt — as  much  from  Jehovah^s  justice  as 
from  Jehovah^s  mercy.  No  creditor  can  right- 
eously demand  that  a  debt  be  twice  paid ;  nor 
magistrate  that  a  crime  be  twice  punished  ;  nor 
sovereign  that  a  tax  be  twice  exacted.  And 
'  shall  man  be  more  just  than  God  ?  ^  Is  that 
justice  on  the  part  of  man?  and  '^Are  not  my 
ways  equal  ?^  saith  the  Lord.  Jesus  has  once 
for  all  paid  the  debt  of.  His  people  to  the  utter- 
most farthing;  fulfilled  their  duties,  and  made 
full  atonement  for  their  crimes.  And  hence  their 
joy  and  peace  in  believing;  hence  the  happy  con- 
fidence with  which,  like  the  dying  Wesley,  when 
his  spirit  was  hovering  on  the  verge  of  another 


THE  WA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  i  '^'j 

world,    they   who  have   made  their   caHing  and 
election  sare_,  can  sing — 

'  I  the  chief  of  sinners  am  ; 
But  Jesus  died  for  me.' 

Regarding  the  method  of  salvation  by  faith  in 
the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  way,  here 
are  some  of  its  pecuhar  and  gracious  and  happy 
features,  borrowed  from  the  lights  of  prophecy. 

It  is  a  high  ivaxj. 

A  highway,  or  the  ^  King's  highway,'  as  it 
Lised  to  be  called,  is  distinguished  from  private 
roads  by  an  important  difference.  Gates,  walls, 
and  warnings  may  exclude  from  these  all  but 
members  or  visitors  of  the  family  to  whose  man- 
sions they  lead;  but  this  is  free  to  the  public — 
the  whole  public.  Here,  no  man  challenges  my 
right  to  walk,  or,  holding  the  gate  in  hand,  and 
saying  ^  Back,  back,^  compels  me  with  wearied 
feet  and  disappointed  hopes  to  retrace  my  steps. 
Here,  no  distinctions  of  noble  or  mean,  of  rich 
or  poor,  of  virtuous  or  vicious,  of  good  or  bad,  of 
sect,  or  rank,  or  party,  are  recognized.     Here  all 


1 88  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

classes — master  and  servant^  the  peer  in  his  robes 
and  the  beggar  in  his  rags — meet  on  common 
ground ;  the  road  below  as  free  to  every  foot  as 
the  air  above  to  birds  of  every  wing. 

Nor  less  free  is  salvation  by  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Not  that  men,  encroaching  as  well  on  the 
prerogatives  of  the  Sovereign  as  on  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  His  people,  have  not  wickedly  at- 
tempted to  restrict  the  blessings  of  grace.  For 
example — denying  the  free  use  of  the  Scriptures 
to  the  laity,  claiming  for  her  priests  a  monopoly 
of  spiritual  power,  and,  for  her  adherents,  the  ex- 
clusive benefits  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  this 
Popery  does.  And  other  churches,  retaining  her 
spirit,  though  they  repudiate  her  name,  show 
themselves  hardly  less  exclusive.  Some  confining 
the  flow  of  grace  to  the  channel  of  vi^hat  they 
call  *^ Apostolical  Succession;^  others  regarding 
their  own  as  the  only  true  and  faithful  church, 
without  whose  pale,  often  of  the  narrowest  limits, 
there  is  little  hope  of  a  blessing  either  on  sermons 
or  sacraments,  take  from  salvation  by   faith   in 


THE  WA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION. 


Christ^s  righteousness  the  characteristic  features 
of  a  highway.  But  in  the  face  of  invitations  so 
free  as  these^ — ^  Ho  every  one  that  thirsteth, 
come  ye  to  the  waters/ — '  Come  unto  me^  all  ye 
that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest/ — in  the  face  also  of  declarations  so 
gracious  as  these, — '  Whosoever  cometh  unto  me 
I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out/ — ^  Whosoever  believeth 
in  me  shall  not  perish,  but  hath  everlasting  life/ 
^it  is  bold,  and  nothing  less  than  impious  pre- 
sumption to  attempt  to  dam  up  the  living  waters 
of  the  sanctuary,  and  confine  to  the  narrow  limits 
of  their  own  sect  or  party  the  benefits  of  Christ's 
death.  God  be  praised,  they  cannot.  They 
may  as  well  prescribe  a  narrower  course  for  the 
great  sun  as  he  goes  forth  in  the  heavens  to  shine 
on  every  land  ;  or  control  the  tides,  that,  rising 
to  celestial  influences,  roll  over  the  bosom  of  the 
ocean  to  visit  every  continent  and  wash  every 
\>hore.  Inviting  all,  without  respect  to  birth  or 
baptism,  to  character  or  church,  addressing  as 
much   the  vilest  sinners,  the  outcasts,  the  scum 


1 90  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

and  dregs  of  society,  as  those  whose  virtues  have 
won  universal  esteem,  Jesus  says,  ^Look  unto  me 
and  be  ye  saved_,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth  ^ — ^  I  am 
the  way  ^ — ^  I  have  set  before  you  an  open  door/ 
And  neither  deterred  by  the  voice  of  bigotry  nor 
scared  by  the  fears  of  guilt,  let  us  crowd  the  gates 
of  mercy;  enter — enter  joyfully  in.  Blessed  be 
God_,  He  who  shutteth  and  no  man  openeth, 
openeth  and  no  man  shutteth. 

It  is  a  plain  ivaij. 

The  Bible  has  had  innumerable  commentators. 
Some,  by  their  books  or  sermons,  remind  us  of 
him  who  lighted  a  candle  to  show  the  sun;  and 
others_,  like  the  fog-bank  through  which  the  sun 
shines  shorn  of  his  beams,  'darken  counsel  by 
words/  and  make  what  was  clear  obscure.  By 
their  labours,  some  have  diluted,  while  others, 
making  their  sermons  or  commentaries  a  vehicle 
for  error,  have  adulterated  the  truth  of  God^  the 
wine  of  life.  But  however  this  may  be,  more 
pens  have  been  worn,  more  breath  spent,  more 
printing-presses  employed,  in  explaining  the  Bible 


THE  WAY  OF  SALVATION.  191 

than  all  other  books  whatever ;  so  that  were  all 
the  books  collected  which  have  been  written  to 
throw  light  on  the  Scriptures,  they  would — not 
excepting  that  of  Alexandria_,  which  it  took  many 
weeks  to  reduce  to  ashes — form  the  largest  libraiy 
the  world  ever  saw.  Are  we  to  infer  from  this 
that  the  way  of  life  is  obscure?  Bv  no  means. 
All  that  it  is  necessary  to  know  in  order  to  be 
saved,  it  is  easy  to  know.  '  The  wavfaring  men, 
though  fools,  shall  not  err  therein,^  says  the  Pro- 
phet; and  without  disparaging  the  labours  of 
pious  and  able  divines  to  explore  the  mysteries 
and  shed  light  on  the  obscurities  of  the  sacred 
volume,  the  simple  Bible,  blessed  by  God,  has 
proved  to  unlettered  thousands  a  safe  and  suf- 
ficient guide.  Whatever  genius  and  arduous 
study  it  may  require  to  rise  to  a  place  in  the 
temple  of  fame,  many  a  humble  Christian,  hardly 
able  to  spell  his  way  through  the  Word  of  God, 
has  reached  one  in  the  temple  of  heaven.  Thou- 
sands so  deficient  in  talent  or  energy  as  never  to 
have  been  able  to  make  their  way  in  this  world. 


192  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

have  found  their  way  to  a  better  one ;  nor  are 
there  wanting  interesting  and  well-attested  cases 
of  imbeciles,  who^  though  destitute  of  capacity 
for  ordinary  knowledge_,  have  known  Him  whom 
to  know  is  life  .eternal — so  plain  the  way  through 
child-like  faith  in  Christ — so  easy  as  well  to  the 
unsteady  gait  of  simpletons  as  to  the  tottering 
foot  of  childhood,  as  to  verify  the  words,  '  The 
wayfaring  men,  though  fools,  shall  not  err  there- 
in/ With  this  simple  answer  to  the  great  ques- 
tion, ^What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?'  ^Believe 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved,^  none  need  be  excluded  from  heaven  be- 
cause of  ignorance;  as  with  virtue  in  Christ's 
blood  to  cleanse  the  chief  of  sinners,  none  need 
be  excluded  because  of  sin.  It  needs  no  learning 
to  learn  this  way. 

What  has  the  Church  seen  ?  God  ordaining 
strength  out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings; 
grey-haired  men  learning  wisdom  at  the  feet  of 
childhood ;  the  death-beds  of  the  humble  poor 
like  the  very  gates  of  heaven;  the  child  learning 


THE  WA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  193 

the  way  to  life  on  a  mother's  knee ;  the  thief 
learning  it  on  his  dying  cross ;  the  mantle  of  pro- 
phets falling  on  ploughmen ;  heaven  revealing  its 
glories  to  humble  shepherds;  rude  fishermen  of 
Galilee  called  to  the  apostleship ;  grace  polishing 
the  roughest  men ;  roaming  savages  tamed  by 
the  voice  and  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  clothed 
and  in  their  right  mind.  Simple  faith  in  Him  is 
all  that  is  required — such  confidence  as  the  little 
child_,  lying  in  its  mother's  arms,  hanging  on  her 
neck,  looking  up  in  her  face,  reposes  in  the  power 
of  a  mother's  arm  and  the  tenderness  of  a 
mother's  heart. 
It  is  a  lioly  way, 

*  Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 
But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me. 
And  that  Thou  bid'st  me  come  to  Thee, 
O  Lamb  of  God,  I  come.' 

As  is  expressed  in  these  well-known  and  beautiful 

lines,  we  are  to  go  to  Christ  as  sinners — guilty, 

polluted,   wretched,  miserable  sinners.     We   are 

to  go  as  we  are;  not,  however,  to  continue  as  we 

are,  but  to  obtain  deliverance  as  well  from  the 
13 


194  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

power  as  from  the  punishment  of  sin.  Regarding 
it  as  a  disease,  hereditary  in  our  family_,  deadly  as 
the  leprosy,  and  as  loathsome  in  its  features  as  it 
is  fatal  in  its  issue,  the  Church  may  be  regarded 
as  an  hospital — but  by  no  means  an  hospital  for 
incurables.  To  those  asylums  where  pity  seeks  to 
shelter  the  hopeless  and  alleviate  the  sufferings  of 
hngering  but  inevitable  death,  the  gospel  presents 
no  counterpart.  With  a  physician  in  Christ,  of 
whom  I  can  say  that  He  never  refused  a  case, 
never  charged  a  fee,  and  never  lost  a  patient,  it 
opens  its  doors  to  receive  the  sick,  men  and 
women,  even  in  the  very  hour  and  article  of 
death;  but  it  is  to  cure  them — send  them  out 
healed  ;  through  the  sanative  and  sanctifying  in- 
fluence of  the  Holy  Spirit,  cured  of  'whatsoever 
manner  of  disease  they  had.' 

Neither  requiring  nor  recognizing  any  merit 
in  us,  but  resting  our  acceptance  with  God  en- 
tirely on  the  merits  of  His  Son,  the  gospel  does 
not  dispense  with  personal  holiness,  nor  afford 
any  pretext  to  such  as  say,  Let  us  continue  in  sin, 


THE  WA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  195 

that  grace  may  abound.  The  same  authority 
that  declares^  Whosoever  believeth  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  shall  be  saved^  declares  that  without 
holiness  no  man  shall  see  God.  A  prominent 
feature  that,  of  salvation  by  faith  in  the  righteous- 
ness of  Jesus  Christ — ^  it  shall  be  called/  says  the 
prophetj  '  the  way  of  holiness  :  the  unclean  shall 
not  pass  over  it.^  In  regeneration,  this  way  is 
entered  on  by  a  holy  change ;  in  the  saints  of 
God,  it  is  frequented  by  a  holy  company ;  and  in 
that  pure  and  blessed  heaven,  above  whose  portals 
is  written.  There  entereth  nothing  here  to  hurt  or 
to  defile,  it  conducts  to  a  holy  place. 

Where  are  you  going  ?  said  Malan,  of  Geneva, 
to  an  English  lady  who  was  introduced  to  him. 
I  am  on  my  way  to  visit  Rome,  was  her  reply. 
Oh,  he  answered,  that  is  not  what  I  mean  ;  start- 
ling her  with  this  plain,  pointed  question.  Is  it  to 
heaven  or  to  hell,  madam,  you  are  going  ?  Ab- 
rupt, indiscreet  perhaps,  as  such  a  mode  of  address 
may  be  considered,  the  question  is  one  which 
every  person  should  put  to  themselves — proving 


196  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

their  own  work^  trying  the  foundation  of  their 
hopes,  and  giving  all  diligence,  as  the  Apostle  says, 
to  make  their  calling  and  election  sure.  For  this 
object,  what  better,  plainer,  surer  test  than  the 
holiness  which  the  Scriptures  invariably  associate 
wdth  true  living  faith  ?  There  sanctification  and 
justification  are  inseparably  connected  ;  and  what 
God  hath  joined  together,  let  none  attempt  to  put 
asunder.  To  live  in  the  unrestrained,  unrepented 
indulgence  of  any  sin,  and  talk  of  faith  in  Christ, 
and  indulge  in  hopes  of  heaven,  is  a  mockery  and 
a  miserable  delusion;  one  of  the  strongest  proofs 
that  '  the  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and 
desperately  wicked.^  To  be  holy  as  God  is  holy, 
to  be  perfect  as  our  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect,  to 
have  the  same  mind  in  us  that  was  in  Jesus 
Christ,  though  not  yet  the  attainment,  is  the  aim 
and  wish,  the  object  of  the  prayers  and  efforts,  of 
every  child  of  God — No  holiness,  no  heaven, 
being  an  adage  as  true  as  the  more  common  say- 
ing, No  cross,  no  crown. 
It  is  a  safe  way. 


THE  WA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  197 

'  He  laid  his  carcase  in  his  own  grave,  and  they 
mourned  over  him,  saying,  Alas_,  my  brother ! ' 
That  grave  received  one  v^ho  was  returning  to  a 
home  he  never  reached.  Contrary  to  his  instruc- 
tions, this  prophet  of  God  had  ate  and  drunk  in 
Bethel  to  learn^  that  when  he  left  the  path  of 
duty,  he  left  the  path  of  safety.  On  his  way 
homeward,  a  lion,  the  messenger  of  divine  wrath, 
met  and  slew  him.  This  was  no  accident,  but  a 
special  providence — as  appeared  from  the  circum- 
stance that  the  beast  which  he  rode  was  found 
standing  fearless  on  one  side  of  his  body,  and  the 
lion  that  had  killed  him  quietly  on  the  other ;  yet 
such  accidents  were  not  uncommon  in  the  lands 
of  the  Bible.  Jacob,  for  instance,  when  the  coat 
of  many  colours  was  produced_,  all  stained  with 
blood,  instantly  and  bitterly  exclaimed,  It  is  m^v 
son^s  coat,  an  evil  beast  hath  devoured  him ; 
Joseph,  without  doubt,  is  rent  in  pieces.  So  also 
David,  describing  the  greatness  of  his  danger, 
says,  ^  My  soul  is  among  lions ; '  and  hence,  also, 
the  figure  employed   to  describe  the  difficulty  or 


J98  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

peril  of  an  enterprise^   'There  is  a  lion   in   the 
path  ! ' 

Blessed  be  God,  this  cannot  be  said  of  the 
path  opened  to  heaven  by  the  blood  of  Christ. 
'No  lion  shall  be  there/  says  the  prophet,  'nor 
any  ravenous  beast  shall  go  up  therein ;  it  shall 
not  be  found  there  ^ — words  these  that^  describing 
the  state  of  those  who  are  justified  through  faith 
in  the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ,  assure  us  of 
their  safety,  of  the  care  the  Lord  takes  of  them ; 
preserving  them ;  defending  them ;  and  securing 
this,  that  come  what  may  in  the  form  of  trials  and 
temptations,  they  shall  not  come  short  of  eternal 
life.  Were  it  otherwise,  what  though  salvation 
were  freely  offered,  and  offered  to  all,  if  any 
honestly  seeking  and  pursuing  it  might  neverthe- 
less perish !  What  though  Christ  died,  if  any 
for  whom  He  died  could  be  plucked  out  of  His 
hands  !  Farewell  then  to  the  peace  that  passeth 
understanding;  farewell  to  the  calm  tranquillity 
that  is  careful  for  nothing,  but  by  prayer  and  sup- 
plication, with  thanksgiving  in  all  things,  makes 


THE  WAY  OF  SALVATION.  199 

its  wants  known  unto  God.  It  is  with  cautious 
steps  we  tread  the  grass  where  the  serpent  Hes 
coiled^  ready  for  the  spring;  it  is  with  beating 
hearty  and  anxious  eye,  and  hushed  and  breath- 
less silence,  travellers  skirt  the  brake  where  the 
lion,  watching  for  his  prey,  lies  crouching  for  the 
leap ;  and,  if  exposed  without  protection  to  such 
dangers,  how  is  the  pilgrim  to  Zion  to  go  up  with 
songs  ?  how  is  he  to  respond  to  the  glorious  call, 
Rejoice  in  the  Lord  alway,  and  again  I  say. 
Rejoice  ? 

'  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,'  said  Jesus;  ^  ye 
believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me/  So  He  says  to 
His  people ;  and  what  says  He  of  them  ? — ^  I  give 
unto  them  eternal  life,  and  they  shall  never  perish.' 
There  were  lions  once  in  the  way.  Satan  was 
one — a  roaring  lion  walking  about  seeking  whom 
he  might  devour :  but  he  is  chained  now,  and 
able  to  do  little  more  than  roar  against  the  saints; 
he  may  alarm,  but  cannot  harm  them.  The  jus- 
tice of  God  also  was  once  a  lion  in  the  way  :  but 
the  Good  Shepherd  having  given  His  life  for  the 


200  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

sheep_,  justice  has  been  satisfied,  and  now  the  hon 
and  the  lamb  dwell  together.  Death  also  was 
once  a  lion  in  the  way;  but  sin_,  the  sting  of 
death,  atoned  for,  he  has  lost  his  terrors ;  direst 
foe  is  changed  into  truest  friend  ;  death  has  be- 
come gain,  and  in  its  darkness  faith  hails  the 
aurora  of  eternal  day.  No  doubt,  they  who  are 
united  by  faith  to  Christ,  accepted  and  forgiven  of 
God,  have  evils  to  endure  in  this  life;  a  sore 
battle  to  fight ;  perhaps  heavy  burdens  to  bear. 
But  though  they  may  be  cast  down,  they  cannot 
be  destroyed.  With  Jesus  at  the  helm,  their  ship 
may  be  tossed  on  the  billov/s^  but  it  cannot 
founder.  In  reward  of  what  He  did  and  suffered 
for  them,  God  hath  promised  to  His  Son  what 
He  promised  to  His  servant,  Paul,  '  I  have  given 
thee  all  them  that  sail  with  thee  !  ■*  so — as  when 
the  ship  took  the  ground,  and  her  masts  went  by 
the  board,  and  the  waves  made  a  clean  breach 
over  her,  some  swimming,  some  on  boards,  some 
drifting  through  the  wild  sea  on  broken  pieces  of 
the  ship,  all  that  company  escaped  safe  to  land. 


THE  IVA  V  OF  SAL  VA  TION.  2or 

all  who  believe  in  Jesus  shall  reach  the  heavenly 
shore.  I  say,  therefore,  v^ith  Paul,  Wherefore, 
sirs,  be  of  good  cheer  ! 

*  Through  Him  all  dangers  we'll  defy, 
And  more  than  conquer  all.' 


IX. 


THE  SINNER'S  LINK  TO  THE  SAVIOUR- 
FAITH. 

T^VERY  candid  reader  of  the  Bible  is  struck 
with  the  singular  prominence  which  it  gives 
to  Faith.  It  is  obvious  at  a  glance  that  Faith  is 
the  pivot  on  which  the  whole  system  of  divine 
truth  turns.  It  is  so^  alike  in  theory  and  in  prac- 
tice ;  theoretically,  as  the  corner-stone  of  the 
system  of  doctrine  ;  and  practically_,  as  the  found- 
ation of  the  new  life  of  the  Christian.  It  is  said 
that  we  are  justified  by  faith,  and  being  so  justi- 
fied, we  have  peace  with  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  By  faith  also  we  have  access 
into  a  state  of  abiding  grace,  and  rejoice  in  the 
hope  of  the  glory  of  God.     Without  faith,  we  are 


FAITH.  203 


told_,  it  is  impossible  to  please  God.  Faith  was  the 
one  great  attribute  of  all  the  Old  Testament 
saints^  even  of  men  who  differed  from  one  another 
so  widely  as  Enoch  differed  from  Samson,  or  as 
Isaac  differed  from  Jephthah.  By  faith  the  elders 
obtained  a  good  report ;  it  was  alike  the  support 
of  their  hopes,  the  fountain  of  their  courage,  the 
source  of  their  patience,  and  the  instrument  of 
their  victories.  From  our  Lord  nothing  drew  so 
cordial  commendations  as  the  victories  of  faith  ; 
of  the  centurion  he  could  say,  ^  I  have  not  found 
so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel ;  ^  and  to  the 
Syrophenician  mother,  ^  O  woman,  great  is  thy 
faith  ;  be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt/  In  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  the  highest  praise  bestowed 
on  martyrs  and  heroes  rests  upon  the  glory  of 
their  faith ;  Stephen  was  full  of  faith  and  power, 
so  that  his  face  shone  as  it  had  been  the  face  of 
an  angel ;  Barnabas  was  a  good  man,  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith ;  and  Paul  describes  his 
new  life  in  Christ  as  very  eminently  a  life  of 
faith  :   '  The  life  that  I  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  by 


204  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE, 

the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me  and 
gave  himself  for  me/ 

In  any  attempt^  then,  to  set  forth  the  leading 
truths  of  Christianity  a  prominent  place  is  due  to 
faith.  What  does  it  really  mean  ?  Hovi^  comes 
it  to  fulfil  a  function  so  important  as  that  v^^hich 
is  assigned  to  it  in  the  word  of  God  ?  How  comes  it 
to  be  the  link  that  binds  the  sinner  to  the  Saviour, 
the  hand  that  lays  hold  upon  Christ,  the  medium 
by  which  all  saving  blessings  come?  How  is 
it  that  faith  is  made  the  great  criterion  for  deter- 
mining the  state  of  salvation,  and  that  the  most 
awful  issues  of  life  and  death  are  suspended  on  its 
presence  or  absence  ?  For  ^  He  that  believeth  on 
the  Son  hath  everlasting  life;  but  he  that  be- 
lieveth not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life ;  but  the 
wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him.'  These  are  great 
questions,  demanding  the  most  earnest  attention 
of  all  who  would  attain  to  the  knowledge  of  sav- 
ing truth. 

I.  We  begin  by  explaining  the  term.  In  the 
most  general  sense  of  the  word,  faith  denotes  the 


FAITH.  205 


act  or  state  of  mind  which  receives  as  true  any 
statement  made  on  the  authority  or  by  the  lips  of 
God.  This  is  quite  obvious  in  reference  to  the 
faith  brought  under  our  notice  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. ThuSj  it  was  communicated  to  Abraham 
on  the  authority  of  God  that  he  was  to  have  a 
son^  and  that  through  that  son  his  posterity  w^ould 
be  like  the  stars  of  heaven  ;  Abraham  believed  the 
communication,  even  though  in  the  circumstances 
there  was  no  human  probability  or  even  possi- 
bility of  its  fulfilment.  It  was  further  communi- 
cated to  Abraham,  on  God^s  authority,  that  through 
this  son,  or  through  the  seed  that  should  spring 
from  him,  all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be 
blessed ;  and  so  strong  was  Abraham's  belief  in 
this,  that  even  when  he  was  called  to  offer  up  that 
child  of  promise  in  sacrifice,  he  rested  in  the  con- 
viction that  rather  than  let  the  promise  fail,  God 
would  raise  him  up,  even  from  the  dead.  It  will 
be  seen,  on  a  moment's  reflection,  that  the  nature 
of  the  act  of  faith  was  somewhat  different  in  re- 
ference to  these  two  things.     In  the  former,  what 


2o6  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE, 

Abraham  was  called  to  believe^  was  simply  a  his- 
torical fact^ — the  fact,  namely,  that  he  was  to  be 
the  progenitor  of  a  great  posterity  ;  no  do-ubt  a 
gratifying  fact  for  him,  but  not  directly  affecting 
his  personal  state  before  God,  nor  his  welfare  for 
the  life  to  come.  But  in  the  second  instance, 
more  was  demanded  of  him  than  the  simple 
belief  of  a  historical  fact.  The  communication 
from  God,  that  in  his  seed  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  would  be  blessed,  included  himself  as  well 
as  others,  himself  as  a  sinner,  guilty  before  God, 
and  needing  a  Saviour.  This  communication  was 
something  for  him  to  rest  on,  and  to  derive  hope 
and  comfort  from,  whenever  the  sense  of  sin 
should  weigh  heavily  on  his  conscience,  or  the 
sense  of  a  needed  righteousness,  better  than  his 
own,  should  fill  him  with  anxiety.  Thus  there 
was  more  of  the  spirit  of  trust  in  this  exercise  of 
faith  than  in  the  other.  The  promise  of  God 
here  was  something  for  Abraham  to  lean  on, 
to  calm  his  fears  and  inspire  his  hopes  when 
evil  seemed  to   be  pressing   in    on  him   and  on 


FAITH.  207 


the  world,  when  the  sky  was  darkening  and 
sounds  of  a  gathering  tempest  falHng  upon  his 
ears. 

Hence  it  appears  that  when  faith  in  God's 
word  is  real,  it  will  affect  the  person  believing  it 
differently  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
thing  believed,  and  according  to  the  relation  to  it 
of  the  person  believing.  If  it  be  a  matter  inti- 
mately affecting  his  dearest  interests,  his  whole 
soul  will  be  set  in  motion  by  it ;  if  it  be  a  matter 
with  which  he  has  only  a  distant  connection, 
hardly  an  emotion  will  be  stirred. 

We  see  what  is  analogous  to  this  in  the  inter- 
course of  man  with  man.  You  tell  a  man  that 
some  bank,  in  which  all  his  property  is  invested, 
has  suddenly  failed — a  horror  of  great  darkness 
comes  over  him.  You  tell  the  same  thino;  to 
some  one  who  has  no  interest  in  the  matter — 
hardly  a  line  in  his  face  is  changed.  You  tell  a 
poor  man  that  a  rich  neighbour  is  dead — he  is 
grieved  and  alarmed,  for  he  has  been  supported 
by   his    bounty.     You    tell    the    same    thing    to 


2o8  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 


another — he  can  hardly  suppress  his  joy^  for  he  is 
heir  to  his  fortune. 

Soj  also^  when  any  statement  made  on  God's 
authority  is  really  believed.  If  it  is  felt  to  imply 
evil_,  it  will  excite  fear ;  if  it  is  felt  to  imply  good_, 
it  will  excite  joy.  It  is  quite  possible  that  a  state- 
ment implying  evil  may  excite  no  fear,  or  a  state- 
ment implying  good  may  excite  no  joy.  But  in 
such  cases^  there  cannot  be  real  faith.  There  was 
no  real  faith  on  the  part  of  Eve  when  she  ate  the 
apple — the  deviPs  lie  was  what  she  believed  in 
in  preference  and  in  opposition  to  the  truth  of  God. 
But  there  was  real  faith  on  the  part  of  Noah, 
when,  moved  with  fear,  he  prepared  an  ark  to 
the  saving  of  his  house.  There  was  real  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  Ninevites  when,  hearing  Jonah's 
message,  they  humbled  themselves  before  God. 
There  was  real  faith  on  the  part  of  David,  when 
he  heard  from  Nathan  that  the  great  Deliverer  was 
to  be  born  of  his  seed,  and  his  whole  heart  went 
out  in  thanksgivings.  There  was  real  faith  on  the 
part  of  Mary,  when  the  angel  announced  that  she 


FAITH.  209 


was  to  give  birth  to  the  Messiah^ — no  higher  joy 
was  ever  felt  than  hers_,  *  My  soul  doth  magnify 
the  Lord^  and  my  spirit  doth  rejoice  in  God  my 
Saviour/ 

In  those  instances  in  which  the  statement 
believed  referred  to  a  Person  by  whom  certain 
blessings  were  to  come_,  the  belief  that  resulted 
had  in  it  the  nature  of  trust.  Thus  it  was  when 
God  called  on  the  oppressed  Israelites  to  receive 
Moses  as  their  Deliverer.  He  announced  His  pur- 
pose of  achieving  their  deliverance  through  him; 
He  gave  them  to  understand  that  His  Spirit 
would  be  poured  out  on  him  as  a  spirit  of 
wisdom^  of  power,  and  of  authority;  in  short, 
that  nothing  would  be  wanting  to  constitute  him 
a  triumphant  champion.  Evidently,  where  there 
was  faith  in  these  promises,  there  would  be  trust 
in  Moses.  The  people  would  lean  confidently  on 
him  as  fully  qualified  to  deliver,  and  in  conse- 
quence they  would  have  a  thorough  sense  of 
safety,  whatever  difficulties   or  opposition  might 

arise.      And  the  more  they  showed  of  this  spirit 
14 


2 1  o  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

of  trust  when  the  circumstances  were  adverse,  so 
much  the  more  highly  would  they  honour  God. 
If  dangers  multiplied  around  them,  dangers  that 
threw  their  unbelieving  brethren  into  despair ;  by 
remaining  calm  and  confident  they  would  show 
that,  whatever  might  be  the  appearances,  there  was 
no  real  cause  for  anxiety.  God,  they  would  say, 
is  our  refuge,  and  Moses  is  His  servant,  therefore 
we  will  not  fear — all  must  be  well. 

2.  These  simple  explanations  bear  on  faith 
generally ;  we  go  on  to  remark  that  the  faith  with 
which  eternal  life  is  specially  connected  in  the 
New  Testament,  bears  upon  the  statements  which 
God  has  made  about  our  salvation  through  Jesus 
Christ. 

These  statements  are  of  a  two-fold  character : 
the  one  respecting  the  evil  that  has  been  incur- 
red ;  the  other  respecting  the  good  that  has  been 
provided. 

Regarding  the  evil  that  has  been  incurred, 
God's  statements  are  very  terrible.  All  sin,  in 
God's   eyes,  is  a  frightful  crime  and  deserves  a 


FAITH.  211 


frightful  punishment.  Men  may  have  such  want 
of  moral  sensibility  as  not  to  understand  why  this 
should  be,  they  may  be  unable  to  detect  in  sin  that 
character  of  vileness  which  makes  it  so  detest- 
able to  God_,  and  its  doom  so  awful.  Be  this  as 
it  may,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  view  of  sin 
which  the  Scriptures  attribute  to  God  —  ^  The 
wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven  against 
all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men 
who  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness.^  The 
commonness  of  sin,  which  takes  so  much  away 
from  its  odious  character  in  our  eyes,  makes  no 
difference  to  it  in  God^s.  Though  it  be  the 
universal  characteristic  of  our  race ;  though  all 
have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God  ; 
though  its  corrupting  stain  has  spread  to  every 
part  of  our  nature;  though  it  meets  the  eye  of 
the  Holy  One  alike  in  the  crowded  city  and  in  the 
lonely  cottage,  on  the  throne  of  the  Prince  and 
under  the  rags  of  the  beggar,  it  never  ceases  to 
present  to  Him  the  same  horrid  aspect — the  abom- 
inable thing  which  He  hates;  and  so  long  as  filth 


212  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

is  hateful  to  purity_,  so  Jong  as  light  can  have  no 
fellowship  with  darkness^  the  doom  of  sin  and  of 
the  sinner  must  remain  unchangeable — ^The  soul 
that  sinneth,  it  shall  die/ 

On  the  other  hand^  God's  statements  to  us  re- 
garding the  good  that  has  been  provided  in  Christy 
are  equally  striking.  '  The  wages  of  sin  is  death  ; 
but  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life^  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord/  '  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from 
the  curse  of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us.' 
'■  Christ  hath  also  once  suffered  for  sin_,  the  just 
for  the  unjust_,  that  he  might  bring  us  unto  God,' 
The  remedy  for  sin  is  complete,  altogether  satis- 
factory to  God,  and  the  offer  of  the  remedy  is  as 
wide  as  the  globe  and  as  free  as  the  air.  '  Ho, 
every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters,  and 
he  that  hath  no  money.'  ^  Look  unto  me,  and  be 
ye  saved,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth ;  for  I  am  God, 
and  beside  me  there  is  none  else.'  ^  Come 
unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.'  Redemption  from  sin, 
indeed,  is  the   crowning  product  of  divine  skill 


FAITH.  213 


and  power;  and  wide  and  deep  though  the  ruin 
be  which  sin  has  caused^  the  remedy  of  the  Gos- 
pel is  amply  sufficient  to  counteract  its  curse_,  and 
restore  the  forfeited  blessing;  for  *" where  sin 
abounded^  grace  did  much  more  abound;  that  as 
sin  hath  reigned  unto  deaths  even  so  might  grace 
reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord/ 

Now,  wherever  faith  is  exercised  in  these  two 
classes  of  statements,  the  reality  of  the  faith  will 
be  seen  by  the  fear  which  results  from  believing 
the  one,  and  the  joy  which  accompanies  the  re- 
ception of  the  other.  On  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
first  the  one  class  of  statements  and  then  the  other 
were  successively  brought  to  bear  on  the  thou- 
sands that  hung  on  the  lips  of  Peter.  When 
they  believed  the  statement  of  evil  incurred,  they 
were  pricked  in  their  heart,  and  driven  to  the 
borders  of  despair ;  when  they  heard  of  the  good 
provided,  they  ^  gladly '  received  the  word,  their 
hearts  were  filled  with  joy  and  peace.  When  the 
Philippian  jailor  believed  the  first,  he  cried  out. 


214  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

what  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  When  he  bcHeved 
the  second,  he  was  baptized,  beHeving  in  the  Lord 
with  all  his  house.  It  is  obvious  that  the  process 
of  faith  is  fundamentally  incomplete,  unless  both 
classes  of  statements  are  received  with  equal 
earnestness.  Sometimes  there  is  a  great  dispro- 
portion, the  first  class  of  statements  are  received, 
almost  devoured,  and  the  other  hardly  permitted 
to  be  entertained.  And  sometimes,  on  the  other 
hand,  but  little  regard  is  had  to  the  first,  and  no 
hesitation  is  felt  as  to  the  second.  Many  persons 
have  religion  enough  to  make  them  fear,  but  not 
enough  to  make  them  rejoice.  They  stop  short 
on  the  narrow  isthmus  that  leads  from  fear  to  joy, 
like  one  driven  from  a  burning  house  on  a  winter 
night,  who  stands  shivering  in  the  street  and  cannot 
be  prevailed  on  to  enter  the  open  door  of  his 
neighbour.  Miserable  halting-place !  opposed 
alike  to  the  nature  of  man,  and  to  the  purpose  of 
God.  Man  was  never  made  to  rest  in  a  state  of 
fear.  Equilibrium  in  fear  is  as  much  an  impossi- 
bility   for   the  heart  of  man  as  equilibrium  for 


FAITH.  215 


a  ship  in  the  midst  of  a  gale.  And  God  never 
meant  His  intelligent  creatures  to  abide  in  fear. 
If  ever  He  bids  them  fear^  it  is  that  He  may 
presently  bid  them  fear  not.  It  is  'fear  not^ 
that  is  the  constant  exhortation  of  the  Bible. 
And  why  ?  Not  because  there  is  no  occasion  for 
fear^  but  because  there  is  transcendant  occasion 
for  joy.  Not  because  sin  has  brought  no  curse, 
but  because  Jesus  has  brought  a  transcendant 
blessing.  Not  because  Paradise  has  never  been 
lost,  but  because  God,  according  to  His  abundant 
mercy,  hath  provided  a  better  inheritance — ^  in- 
corruptible, and  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not 
away.'' 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  persons  who  pay 
little  attention  to  what  is  said  of  the  evil  incurred, 
and  have  no  difficulty  in  receiving  the  tidings  of 
redemption.  Their  sense  of  sin  is  slight,  and 
their  faith,  if  it  be  at  all  genuine,  has  but  shallow 
roots.  They  are  dispo-sed  to  regard  the  moral 
difficulty  caused  by  sin  as  no  very  serious  one, 
and  to  rest  in  the  thought  that  all  has  been  easily 


2 1 6  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

and  satisfactorily  adjusted.  We  would  not  affirm 
that  all  such  persons  are  destitute  of  true  faith  in 
God^s  statements  regarding  salvation.  But  we 
fear  that^  as  a  rule,  the  easy-going  manner  in 
which  the  whole  subject  is  treated  indicates  a 
heart  unmoved  by  the  solemn  message.  We 
remember  reading  some  years  ago  in  a  daily 
London  newspaper,  an  apology  for  the  prevalent 
gaiety  of  the  population  on  Good  Friday.  With 
a  jaunty  nonchalance  the  writer  remarked  that 
the  people  might  well  be  gay  on  the  anniversary 
of  a  day  that  had  removed  all  cause  for  gloom. 
A  clever  caricature  of  the  Scripture  doctrine  ! 
A  kind  of  jumble  of  the  two  classes  of  state- 
ments, regarding  man's  guilt  and  God's  grace, 
out  of  which  an  easy-going  ^  All's  right,'  seems  to 
be  the  outcome  1  The  experience  of  the  day  of 
Pentecost  was  something  widely  different.  And 
very  different  is  the  experience  of  all  who  can  say, 
*  O  Lord,  I  will  praise  thee ;  though  thou  wast 
angry  with  me,  thine  anger  is  turned  away, 
and  thou  comfortedst  me.' 


FAITH.  217 


3.  More  explicitly  vve  go  on  to  remark  that 
the  statements  of  God  regarding  the  salvation 
that  has  been  provided  relate  mainly  to  the  person 
and  the  work  of  Christy  and  therefore  the  faith 
that  receives  these  statements  must  be  of  the 
nature  of  trust. 

Whenever  God  announces  life  and  salvation 
to  sinners  it  is  in  connection  with  Christ.  '  This 
is  the  record_,  that  God  hath  given  us  eternal  life, 
and  this  life  is  in  his  Son.'  We  cannot 
receive  life,  or  any  element  of  salv^ation,  except  by 
receiving  Christ.  It  has  pleased  the  Father  that 
in  Him  should  all  fulness  dwell;  and  the  appoint- 
ed method  of  supplying  our  wants  is,  that  first  of 
all  we  should  receive  Him,  and  then  receive  out 
of  His  fulness,  even  grace  for  grace.  When  we 
truly  believe  in  God's  statements  respecting  the 
spiritual  storehouse,  we  trust  in  Christ  for  all 
that  w^e  need.  We  feed  on  Him.  A  mental 
habit  is  formed  in  us,  a  law  of  association,  such 
that  whenever  our  attention  is  turned  to  any  of 
our  spiritual   wants,  so  often   is  it  fixed  on  the 


2 1 8  SA  VING  KNO  VV LEDGE. 

qualification  that  enables  Christ  to  supply  it.  As 
often  as  we  think  of  our  guilty  so  often  we 
think  of  His  atoning  blood.  As  often  as  we 
think  of  our  debt^  so  often  we  think  of 
Christ  as  our  surety.  As  often  as  we  think  of 
our  unworthinesSj  so  often  we  think  of  His  merit. 
As  often  as  we  think  of  our  pollution^  so  often 
we  think  of  that  spirit  of  holiness  that  comes 
forth  from  Him.  As  often  as  we  think  of  our 
darkness^  so  often  we  think  of  H  is  power  to  open 
our  eyes  and  guide  us  in  the  way.  As  often  as 
we  think  of  our  unfitness  for  heaven,  so  often  we 
think  how  Christ  ^  loved  His  church  and  gave 
Himself  for  it ;  that  He  might  sanctify  it  by  the 
washing  of  water  by  the  word ;  that  He  might 
present  it  to  Himself  a  glorious  church^,  without 
spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing.-' 

Thus  it  is  that  faith  in  Christ  has  so  much 
of  the  nature  of  trust.  But  it  is  trust  founded 
on  God's  statements  respecting  Him^  and  respect- 
ing the  relation  in  which  He  stands  to  sinners. 
And   hence,  too,  the   remarkable  way  in  which 


FAITH.  219 


JesLis  was  accustomed  to  offer  His  blessings. 
'  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy 
laden^  and  I  will  give  you  rest/  ^  If  any  man 
thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink/  '  I  am 
(not  I  give)  the  bread  of  life/  '  I  am  (not  I 
cause)  the  resurrection  and  the  life/  All  such 
passages  invite  to  an  exercise  of  trust,  and  imply 
that  the  spirit  and  habit  of  trust  is  essential  to 
the  enjoyment  of  the  specific  blessings.  We  get 
nothing  apart  from  Christ;  we  get  everything 
in  Him  and  through  Him.  And  hence  He  is  said 
to  be  '  made  to  us  of  God  wisdom  and  right- 
eousness and  sanctification  and  redemption.-' 

Few  of  the  questions  in  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism are  answered  with  such  admirable  precision 
and  clearness  as  that  which  asks,  What  is  Faith 
in  Jesus  Christ?  ^  Faith  in  Jesus  Christ  is  a 
saving  grace,  whereby  we^  receive  and  rest  upon 
Him  alone  for  salvation  as  He  is  offered  to  us  in 
the  Gospel.^  The  operations  of  faith  are  summed 
up  in  the  two  things — receiving  and  resting  on 
Christ — the  one   the  commencement    the   other 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


the  continuation^  of  one  and  the  same  mental 
process.  Like  a  drowning  man,  when  a  plank  is 
thrown  towards  him,  who  first  catches  hold  of  the 
plank,  and  then  rests  upon  it,  so  the  believer  first 
takes  hold  of  Christ,  or  receives  Him,  then  con- 
tinues to  rest  upon  Him  alone  for  salvation.  The 
same  reasons  that  impel  us  to  receive  Him,  impel 
us  to  continue  to  rest  on  Him.  Our  helplessness 
is  the  same,  our  personal  unworthiness,  our 
liability  to  fresh  outbreaks  of  sin,  our  spiritual 
emptiness,  our  inability  to  rise  to  the  heights  of 
heavenly  excellence,  our  vileness  in  the  sight  of 
the  Holy  God.  If  we  are  to  be  saved  at  last,  we 
must  be  looking  unto  Jesus ;  if  we  are  to  live 
the  life  of  God^s  children,  it  must  be  by  faith  on 
the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  us,  and  who  gave 
Himself  for  us. 

4.  It  thus  appears  that  the  great  function  of 
Faith  is  to  unite  us  to  Christ.  And  this  it  does 
in  two  ways; — it  makes  us  sharers  in  Christ^s 
merit,  and  it  makes  us  sharers  in  His  life. 

It  makes  us  sharers    in  His   merit.     It  gets 


FAITH. 


for  us  the  benefit  of  His  whole  work  of  atone- 
ment. We  are  justified  by  faith,  because  we 
thereby  lay  hold  on  the  atoning  righteousness  of 
Christ,  and  rest  on  it  before  God,  as  the  ground 
of  our  pardon  and  acceptance.  Faith  is  thus  the 
hand  that  receives  the  righteousness  of  Christ. 
We  are  not  justified  by  faith  on  the  ground  that 
faith  is  accepted  in  place  of  obedience.  Neither 
are  we  justified  by  faith  on  the  ground  that  faith 
is  the  germ  or  active  principle  of  obedience, 
although  it  is  true  that  it  is  so.  We  are  justified 
by  faith  because  by  it  we  lay  hold  on  Jesus  as  our 
Saviour,  and  close  on  our  part  with  the  great 
transaction  whereby  *^  God  hath  made  Him  to  be 
sin  for  us  who  knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be 
made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him.^ 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  good  reasons  why 
faith,  and  not  obedience  or  good  works,  is  the  ap- 
pointed instrument  of  our  justification.  ^By 
grace  ye  are  saved  through  faith,  .  .  .  not  of 
works,  lest  any  man  should  boast.-'  This  arrange- 
ment is  admirably  fitted  to  keep  us  humble,  to 


222  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

keep  us  in  mind  of  our  emptiness^  seeing  that 
we  never  can  have  a  true  sense  of  pardon  and 
acceptance  without  looking  away  from  ourselves 
to  our  Saviour.  It  is  marvellous  how  some  men 
contrive  to  confound  what  God  has  made  so 
separate,  and  mystify  what  He  has  made  so  clear. 
We  have  heard  of  a  minister  of  the  last  genera- 
tion, accustomed  to  offer  the  prayer — ^May  we, 
by  our  good  works,  merit  an  interest  in  Christ.^ 
Pretty  much  as  if  a  company  of  lepers  had 
prayed.  May  we,  by  cleansing  ourselves,  make 
ourselves  worthy  of  being  cleansed  by  Christ ! 
Let  us  fancy  what  it  would  have  been  had  union 
to  Christ  been  made  to  depend  not  on  faith  but 
on  works.  If  only  the  best  people  had  got  the 
benefit  of  Christ's  work,  and  that  in  virtue  of 
their  being  better  than  their  neighbours,  what  a 
world  of  Pharisees  we  should  have  had !  In 
order  to  found  a  plea  with  God,  men  would  have 
had  to  show  how  good  they  were.  Humility, 
the  very  soul  of  all  Christian  graces,  would  have 
been  choked  to  death.      There  would  have  been 


FAITH.  223 


no  casting  of  crowns  before  the  throne — no  com- 
pany there  who  had  washed  their  robes  and  made 
them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  no  salva- 
tion for  the  chief  of  sinners,  no  recovered  Pro- 
digals, no  Mary  Magdalenes,  no  Sauls  of  Tarsus, 
in  the  company  of  the  Redeemed.  But  for  all 
this,  there  is  a  glorious  provision  when  faith  is  the 
bond  of  union  to  Christ,  and  the  instrument  of 
receiving  His  merits.  We  are  taught  to  seek  all 
our  justifying  righteousness  from  above,  and  in 
the  view  of  the  glorious  completeness  and  bright- 
ness of  that  which  is  offered  to  us,  all  righteous- 
nesses of  our  own  dwindle  and  shrivel  into  filthy 
rags. 

Besides  making  us  sharers  of  Christ^s  merits, 
faith  makes  us  sharers  also  of  His  life.  The 
emblem  of  the  vine  and  the  branches  is  verified. 
The  grace  of  Christ  is  transfused  into  our  hearts, 
and  the  life  of  Jesus  is  made  manifest  in  our 
mortal  flesh.  It  is  of  the  very  nature  of  faith 
to  feast  itself  on  the  qualities  which  it  sees  in 
Christ.     It  has  a  suction-power,  if  we  may  so 


224  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

speak^  it  draws  to  itself  whatever  of  value  it  dis- 
covers in  Him.  For  true  faith  is  the  fruit  of  the 
Holy  Spirit^  and  wherever  He  is  at  work  He  not 
only  takes  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  shows 
them  to  us^  but  He  enables  us  to  feed  on  them^ 
and  find  in  them  the  richest  spiritual  nourish- 
ment. And  this  is  the  safeguard  against  the 
abuse  of  faith  as  the  bond  of  union  to  Christ. 
If  pardon  were  something  by  itself,  received  by 
faith  pure  and  simple_,  without  regard  being  had 
to  works^  there  would  be  room  for  great  abuse. 
Men  might  have  an  excuse,  or  at  least  a  tempta- 
tion, to  continue  in  sin  that  grace  might  abound. 
But  faith  being  the  means  of  union  with  a  living 
Person,  not  the  mere  instrument  of  receiving  a 
separate  blessing,  such  an  abuse  is  guarded  against 
where  the  faith  and  the  fellowship  are  real.  True 
faith  regards  Jesus  Christ  with  ever-growing  ad- 
miration. He  is  its  model,  its  standard,  its  joy, 
and  its  crown.  The  closer  it  comes  to  Him^  the 
more  clearly  it  sees  Him  'fairer  than  the  children 
of  men.'      The  more  it  tests  His  grace,  the  more 


FAITH.  225 


glorious  does  it  find  Him,  and  the  stronger  is  the 
desire  to  be  changed  into  His  image.  The  eternal 
decree  that  at  one  time  seemed  so  terrible,  be- 
comes blessed  and  glorious  when  its  final  issue  is 
contemplated — ^  whom  He  did  foreknow,  he  also 
did  predestinate  to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of 
his  Son,  that  He  mig-ht  be  the  firstborn  amonsi; 
many  brethren/ 

It  often  happens  that  persons  who  are  con- 
scious of  the  feebleness  of  their  faith  omit  one 
of  the  chief  means  by  which  it  may  be  strength- 
ened. They  often  subject  their  hearts  to  very 
rigorous  dealings  in  their  eagerness  to  stir  up 
faith.  They  cry  very  earnestly  for  the  Holy  Spirit, 
beseeching  Him  to  breathe  into  them  the  spirit 
of  genuine  trust.  All  most  commendable  and 
excellent.  But  sometimes  the  very  means  is 
neglected  which  the  Spirit  may  be  most  confi- 
dently expected  to  own, — namely,  the  deliberate 
examination  of  the  statements  which  on  God's 
authority  they  are  called  to  believe,  and  the  de- 
vout study  of  the  qualities  that  make  Christ 
15 


226  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

worthy  of  their  trust.  For  it  is  far  more  Hkely 
that  faith  shall  be  increased  by  looking  out  from 
ourselves  to  the  great  Fountain  of  Life^  and  to 
the  record  which  God  has  given  regarding  Him, 
than  by  mere  efforts  to  stir  the  stagnant  energies 
of  our  hearts,  whose  prevailing  state  is  but  too 
truly  indicated  in  the  confession  of  the  Psalmist — 
'  My  soul  cleaveth  unto  the  dust/ 


X. 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE. 

T  T  is  strange  that,  in  this  nineteenth  century, 
men  should  be  discussing  questions  on  some 
of  the  most  essential  points  of  Christianity,  which 
were  received  without  dispute  in  the  earliest  ages 
of  the  Church.  In  particular,  the  question — 
What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  what  is  the  essence 
of  Christian  life  ?  or,  wherein  does  the  true 
Christian  differ  vitally  from  other  men  ?  would 
seem  in  our  day  to  be  the  occasion  of  a  variety  of 
opinion  never  dreamt  of  in  the  early  Church.  It 
is  a  question  which  many  in  our  day  think  it 
wrong  to  submit  to  any  theoretical  inquiry,  and 
which  they  would  rather  that  men  should  leave 
in  the  hazy  region  of  the  undetermined.  And 
no  doubt  theories  may  be  drawn  out,  and  have 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


sometimes  been  drawn  oiit_,  to  a  point  which  is 
alike  unwarranted  and  disastrous;  and  incalcu- 
lable injustice  has  been  done  to  some  men  by  ex- 
cluding them  from  all  part  and  lot  in  the  Chris- 
tian society_,  because  they  have  not  fulfilled  the 
conditions  of  some  minute  human  specification 
of  the  Christian  life  and  experience.  But  we 
must  not  be  deterred  by  this  gross  abuse  from  in- 
quiring whether  we  are  not  taught  something  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures  regarding  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  the  Christian  life_,  whether  there  be  not 
presented  to  us  in  the  Word  of  God  views  incom- 
patible with  much  that  floats  about  at  the  present 
day  as  to  what  really  constitutes  one  a  child  of 
God,  a  member  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  a 
living  branch  in  the  true  vine_,  a  lively  stone  in 
the  living  temple.  To  this  inquiry  we  now  desire 
to  draw  the  attention  of  our  readers,  as  one  of  the 
most  important  in  the  whole  range  of  saving 
knowledge :  but  before  entering  on  it,  we  will 
first  notice  two  forms  of  opinion  to  be  often  met 
with  on  the  subject,  but  professing  to  be  derived 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  229 

less  from  the  Word  of  God  than  from   the  con- 
ceptions and  impressions  of  men^s  own  hearts. 

I.  Some  persons  object  altogether  to  any  and 
every  attempt  to  draw  a  line  between  the  Chris- 
tian and  the  no-Christian,  or  to  define  explicitly 
the  essential  points  either  in  the  state  or  in  the 
character  of  the  former.  According  to  them,  the 
Christian  spirit  is  a  sort  of  atmosphere  univers- 
ally diffused,  which  all  men  breathe  more  or  less ; 
or  a  subtle  force,  like  heat  or  electricity,  seldom 
wholly  absent,  but  more  predominant  in  some 
communities  and  in  some  individuals  than  in 
others.  There  is  something  of  good,  they  say, 
in  the  worst  characters,  and  something  of  bad  in 
the  best.  The-  shading  off  between  one  character 
and  another  is  so  gradual  and  imperceptible  that 
it  is  absurd  to  attempt  to  draw  a  line  between 
them,  and  to  represent  all  as  Christians  on  the 
one  side  of  it,  and  no-Christians  on  the  other. 
Charity  ought  to  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  hardly 
any  one  is  utterly  lost  to  what  is  good,  and  to 
anticipate  a  time  when  the  good  shall  everywhere 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


assert  its  rightful  pre-eminence,  and  the  bad  shall 
die  out,  or  be  stamped  out,  as  a  foreign  element 
that  has  somehow  found  its  way  into  the  cha- 
racter. It  is  a  mere  waste  of  time,  they  say,  to 
inquire  theoretically  what  makes  any  one  a  Chris- 
tian. The  doctrine  of  the  last  judgment,  with 
its  sharply-defined  separation  of  the  sheep  from 
the  goats,  is  a  mere  bugbear  forfrightening  people. 
Let  all  fair  and  honest  attempts  be  made  to  im- 
prove the  moral  atmosphere — to  induce  men  by 
reasonable  considerations  to  lead  better  lives;  but 
as  for  the  notion  of  a  hard  and  fast  line — a  rigid 
twofold  division — it  is  the  relic  of  a  barbarous 
age,  a  thing  to  be  classed  with  the  fires  of  pur- 
gatory. 

2.  There  are  others  who  cannot  assent  to  such 
views  as  these,  and  w^ho  yet  come  far  short  of 
the  Scriptural  doctrine.  Reasoning  with  those 
whose  opinions  have  just  been  expressed,  they 
ask  them.  Do  you  make  no  essential  difference 
between  two  classes  of  men,  of  whom  the  one 
are  struggling  to  obey  the  higher  impulses  of  their 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  231 


nature,  while  the  other  abandon  themselves  to 
the  lower  ?  May  not  society  be  at  least  roughly 
divided  into  these  two  classes  ?  Are  not  the 
members  of  the  one  class  at  great  pains  to 
strengthen  and  promote  all  impulses  and  habits 
of  the  better  kind,  while  the  members  of  the 
other  class  habitually  disregard  them  ?  Do  not 
the  one  class  watch  and  check  their  hearts,  try 
in  every  way  to  live  conscientiously,  cultivate  im- 
proving society,  read  books  fitted  to  benefit  them, 
and  order  their  whole  lives  in  accordance  with 
these  high  aims?  Do  not  the  members  of  the 
other  class  habitually  violate  their  consciences, 
and  choose  companions,  books,  or  amusements 
with  no  view  to  their  improvement,  but  merely 
to  the  gratification  of  the  hour  ?  If  this  be  so, 
must  there  not  be  somewhere  a  line  of  separation, 
and  some  great  differentiating  principle,  constitut- 
ing the  moral  character  and  standing  of  some 
men  essentially  different  from  those  of  others  ? 

The  answer  which  is  sometimes  given  to  these 
questions  is  of  this  sort.     All  men  are   subject 


232  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

to  the  action  of  two  kinds  of  principles,  the  better 
and  the  worse.  Good  men  strive  to  give  effect  to 
their  better  impulses;  bad  men  yield,  often  with- 
out a  struggle,  to  the  lower.  Good  men  strive  to 
be  just,  truthful,  sober,  kind,  forgiving,  generous. 
It  is  the  blessed  property  of  Christianity  to  give  a 
great  stimulus  to  these  endeavours.  Under  its 
genial  influences  men  are  enabled  to  succeed  much 
better  in  this  conflict.  The  atmosphere  of  Chris- 
tianity is  infinitely  better  fitted  than  anv  other 
atmosphere  to  nourish  and  strengthen  this  spirit. 
Thus  it  is  that  those  who  breathe  most  fully  the 
atmosphere  of  Christianity  become  the  best  men. 
The  reason  assigned  for  this  is,  not  that  Chris- 
tianity communicates  anything  to  them  which 
may  be  called  a  new  nature,  but  that  Christian 
influences  powerfully  stimulate  the  better  im- 
pulses of  their  proper  nature,  and  raise  these  to  a 
predominance  over  the  worse.  It  is  not  because 
God^s  Spirit  is  given  to  them  in  a  sense  different 
from  that  in  which  He  is  given  to  all,  but  because, 
having  better  aims  than  others,  they  welcome  the 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  233 

Spirit  of  Christ  more,  and  make  more  use  of  the 
aid  which  He  offers. 

If  the  friends  of  Christianity  should  accept 
of  this  position,  and  claim  for  religion  nothing 
more  than  the  power  of  bringing  out  whatever  is 
good  in  human  nature,  and  raising  it  to  a  pre- 
dominance over  the  bad,  they  would  be  allowed  to 
live  in  comparative  peace.  Few  people  would 
have  any  quarrel  with  Christianity  if  this  alone 
were  its  claim  and  its  aim;  and  some  might  an- 
ticipate for  it  a  career  of  most  friendly  and 
blessed  progress,  if  it  simply  offered  itself  to  all 
men  as  a  ministering  angel,  whose  gentle  breath 
should  at  once  wither  all  the  base  and  hurtful 
propensities  of  their  being,  and  stimulate  into 
bright  activity  everything  pure,  honest,  lovely, 
and  of  good  report. 

How  largely  this  conception  of  Christianity 
and  of  the  nature  of  Christian  influence  tinges 
the  literature  of  the  day,  and  especially  the  imag- 
inative literature,  it  is  hardly  necessary  at  present 
to  remark.     Christianity,  in   a    certain  sense,  is 


234  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

not  reviled  as  an  imposture^  or  a  superstition,  but 
recognized  as  a  friend  and  helper  to  man.  But 
too  often  it  is  just  such  a  Christianity  as  we 
have  now  referred  to ;  not  a  Christianity  that 
presents  an  atonement  for  man^s  guilt,  and  sub- 
stitutes a  new  heart  for  the  heart  of  stone;  but 
a  Christianity  with  a  warm  and  highly-fragrant 
breath — a  Christianity  that  raises  the  moral  at- 
mosphere ten  or  twenty  degrees,  and  thus  enables 
virtues  to  bud  and  blossom  and  bear  fruit,  that 
would  have  remained  torpid  in  a  colder  atmos- 
phere. 

This  brief  exposition  of  views  as  to  the  nature 
of  Christian  life,  that  are  only  too  widely  pre- 
valent, may  enable  us  to  understand  and  appre- 
ciate more  clearly  the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures. 
Whatever  impressions  or  conceptions  men  may 
form  on  the  subject,  these  can  have  no  real  avail 
in  opposition  to  the  lessons  of  the  Word.  But 
this  is  just  what  it  is  so  hard  at  the  present  day 
to  establish.      Men  have  such  extraordinary  and 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  235 

overweening  confidence  in  their  own  impressions, 
that  they  cannot  hear  of  anything  that  runs  con- 
trary to  them.  It  is  always  hard — at  the  pre- 
sent day  it  is  pecuHarly  hard — to  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  as  a  Httle  child.  It  is  rare  to 
find  men  ready  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  listen- 
ing with  circumcised  ears,  and  receiving  His  words 
as  words  of  infallible  truth.  The  tendency  is  to 
bring  everything  to  the  standard  of  our  own 
sense  of  fitness,  and  to  receive  or  reject  it  as  it 
may  or  may  not  bear  that  ordeal ;  while  to  listen 
to  tRe  Word,  to  bow  to  the  Bible  as  a  divine 
authority  never  to  be  questioned,  and  never  to  be 
rejected,  is  among  the  rarest  attributes  of  inquir- 
ers at  the  present  time. 

In  order  to  prevent  misconception  as  to  the 
real  issue,  let  us  note  two  things,  which  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  but  only  to  a  certain  extent,  coincide 
with  some  of  the  views  that  have  now^  been  ad- 
verted to. 

The  first  of  these  is,  that  in  the  character  even 
of  men  who  are  not  truly  '  spiritual,^  but  only 


236  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

'  natural/  there  may  be  more  or  less  of  what,  in 
a  sense,  is  good.  They  who  are  evil,  according  to 
our  Lord,  may  know^  ^  how  to  give  good  gifts 
unto  their  children/  There  may  be  many  pleas- 
ing virtues  and  amiable  dispositions  to  which  the 
human  heart  instinctively  and  most  justly  gives 
its  approval  and  admiration.  The  patriotism  that 
sacrifices  everything  for  its  country,  the  instincts 
of  love,  the  attachment  of  children  to  their 
parents,  and  parents  to  their  children,  the  gentle 
play  of  humour,  the  spirit  that  disdains  injustice 
or  dishonour,  the  heart  that  aspires  to  higher 
purity  and  a  nobler  life,  are  all,  to  a  certain 
extent,  good  and  commendable.  There  is  no 
want  of  readiness  in  the  Scriptures  to  acknow- 
ledge this  natural  goodness.  Even  Ephraim, 
whom  Hosea  compares  to  a  guilty  harlot,  was  not 
without  such  goodness,  but  like  ^  the  morning 
cloud  and  the  early  dew,^  it  passed  away.  That 
such  goodness  even  in  considerable  measure  may 
exist  apart  from  salvation,  is  made  obvious  by  the 
striking  parable  of  the  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  237 

Even  in  the  place  of  woe  the  Rich  Man  retained  his 
affectionate  concern  for  his  five  brethren.  The 
very  flames  that  tormented  him  had  not  succeeded 
in  burning  out  of  his  heart  that  instinct  of 
compassion  which  revolted  from  the  thought  of 
their  also  coming  into  the  place  of  torment. 
Brotherly  love  was  active  even  when  despair  had 
settled  down  on  himself.  Marvellous  disclosure 
of  the  future  !  Wonderful  glimpse  of  the  possi- 
bility of  some  things  being  saved  even  from  the 
most  appalling  of  shipwrecks  ! 

The  other  thing  to  be  noted  is  that  even  such 
goodness  as  this  is  to  be  traced  to  God  as  its 
fountain.  No  one  doubts  this  in  regard  to  what 
may  be  called  the  instincts.  The  instincts  of  the 
lower  animals  with  reference  to  their  young  some- 
times exhibit  wonderfully  the  play  of  self-sacrifice, 
and  other  things  akin  to  high  human  virtues.  No 
one  hesitates  to  ascribe  the  origin  of  these  in- 
stincts to  God.  So  everything  in  the  human 
heart  that  is  worthy  to  be  called  good  in  any 
sense  is  doubtless  to  be  ascribed  to  God.     It  is  in 


238  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

virtue  of  a  divine  power  that  even  such  broken 
goodness  is  in  man.  The  fact  of  its  being  now 
both  broken  and  defiled  does  not  affect  the  fact  of 
its  divine  origin.  Every  good  gift  and  every  per- 
fect gift  is  from  above_,  and  cometh  down  from 
the  Father  of  hghts.  The  power  of  God  moving 
them  in  the  direction  of  good  is  in  a  sense  at  work 
in  all  men.  It  is  seen  in  the  feeling  that  disdains  a 
lie,  in  the  self-denial  that  shares  its  last  crust  with  a 
needy  neighbour,  in  the  sense  of  honour  that  pre- 
fers death  to  disgrace.  A  celebrated  popular 
writer  of  the  last  generation,  in  a  piece  of  autobi- 
ography more  plain  than  polished,  tells  how  on 
one  occasion,  when  he  was  in  the  depths  of 
poverty  and  distress,  his  life  was  saved  bv  the 
kind  and  cordial  ministrations  of  a  poor  female 
outcast  in  the  streets  of  London.  Why  should 
it  be  denied,  that  so  far  as  this  poor  creature  was 
moved  to  do  the  part  of  the  good  Samaritan,  she 
was  under  the  impulse  of  a  power  from  God  ?  Or 
why  should  it  be  denied  that  all  that  is  kindly  or 
genial  in  human  feeling  and  noble  or  graceful  in 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  239 

human  action,  and  lofty  and  pure  in  human  aspir- 
ation^  comes  ultimately  from  the  one  source  of 
good,  however  much,  in  the  course  of  its  passage, 
it  may  have  lost  of  the  purity  and  brightness  of 
the  fountain,  and  however  vile  and  unworthy  of 
God's  acceptance  it  may  have  become  in  conse- 
quence of  its  contact  with  human  corruption  ? 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  we  yet  maintain  it 
to  be  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  that  no  amount  of 
natural  goodness  constitutes  any  one  a  Christian, 
or  a  member  of  the  kingdom  of  God ;  and  that 
to  produce  that  result,  there  must  be  a  special 
action  of  the  power  or  Spirit  of  God,  different 
from  any  that  takes  place  in  the  ^  natural  ^  man. 

What  but  this  explains  the  distinction 
between  the  '  natural  ^  man  and  the  ^  spiritual '  ? 
between  those  that  are  '  in  the  flesh  and  cannot 
please  God/  and  those  who  are  '  in  the  Spirit  ^  ? 
between  those  who  are  not  far  from  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  like  the  young  man  with  great  posses- 
sions on  whom  Jesus  looked  so  lovingly,  and  the 
publicans  and  harlots  who  pressed  into  the  king- 


240  SA  VI NG  KNOWLEDGE. 

dom  and  were  safe  ?  between  NIcodemus  before 
he  came  to  Jesiis^  and  Nicodemus  after  he 
learned  of  Him  ?  What  else  explains  the  fact 
that  when  the  Apostles  preached  to  the  multitude 
on  Pentecost^  they  looked  on  all  of  them  as  in 
one  category,  as  men  needing  redemption  and  a 
new  life,  to  be  found  in  Christ  alone?  The  dif- 
ferences in  respect  of  natural  goodness  in  that  great 
crowd  were  obliterated  by  the  levelling  doctrines 
of  universal  guilt  and  alienation  of  heart  from 
God,  needing  in  every  case  to  be  met  by  Christ^s 
redemption,  and  by  the  renewing  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  And  are  we  not  all  familiar  with 
such  language  in  Scripture  as  conversion,  quick- 
ening^ regeneration  ?  '  Many  are  called,  but  few 
are  chosen.'  '  Not  many  great  men  after  the 
flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble,  arc 
called.'  St  Paul  congratulated  the  Thessalonians 
because  his  Gospel  ^  came  to  them  not  in  word 
only,  but  in  power,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
in  much  assurance.'  The  same  Apostle  tells  the 
Corinthians  that  he  ^  was  with  them  in  weakness 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  241 

and  in  fear  and  in  much  tremblings  and  his  spirit 
and  his  preaching  was  not  with  enticing  words 
of  man's  wisdom^  but  in  demonstration  of  the 
Spirit,  and  of  power ;  that  their  faith  should  not 
stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of 
God/  Does  this  not  clearly  imply  that  the 
blessed  impression  which  he  sought  to  get  pro- 
ducedj  while  preaching  to  them_,  could  result  only 
from  a  special  action  of  God's  Spirit?  and  that 
while  he  abated  no  means  within  his  power  tend- 
ing towards  such  impression_,  he  went  to  work 
with  the  deep  conviction_,  that  should  that  special 
action  of  the  Spirit  not  be  bestowed,  all  his  en- 
deavours would  be  in  vain  ? 

But  we  have  in  Scripture  a  crucial  case,  as  it 
may  be  called,  the  case  of  Nicodemus.  Most  re- 
markable it  was  that  our  Lord  should  have  open- 
ed His  conversation  with  him  by  the  words, 
^  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee.  Except  a  man  be 
born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God.' 
Why  of  all  men  should  our  Lord  have  made  this 

solemn  statement  to  Nicodemus  ?      There  was  in 
16 


242  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

him_,  even  amid  his  timidity^  much  to  be  com- 
mended. A  sericuSj  earnest,  religious  man,  with 
a  great  desire  for  light  and  truth,  a  profound 
anxiety  about  salvation,  with  many  a  good  im- 
pulse, and  day  by  day,  doubtless,  performing 
many  an  act  of  homage  to  conscience  and  to  the 
law  of  God.  Surely  this  was  the  very  case,  if 
ever  one  could  be,  in  which  there  was  need  only 
that  his  good  points  should  be  more  fully  de- 
veloped, his  errors  corrected,  and  an  impulse  given 
to  his  earnest  aspirations  for  good.  Yet  it  is  just 
to  this  man  that  our  Lord  most  emphatically  lays 
down  the  doctrine  that  he  must  be  born  again. 
How  can  this  be  accounted  for  but  on  the  princi- 
ple that  there  may  be  much  genuine  desire  for 
good,  and  in  a  sense  practice  of  what  is  good, 
without  the  vital  change  that  marks  the,  member 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  that  in  every  case  of  en- 
trance into  that  kingdom,  it  is  not  a  tinkering  up 
of  the  old  nature,  but  the  inspiration  of  a  new 
spirit  that  takes  place ;  that  to  be  a  Christian  is 
not  merely  to  be  more   in  the  habit  than  most 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  243 

people  are  of  giving  effect  to  the  better  impulses 
of  one's  nature,  but  ^  to  be  born  again,  not  of  cor- 
ruptible seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  of  the  Word  of 
God  which  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever  ? ' 

It  is  strange  that  any  should  deny  that  this  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  not 
strange  that  those  who  judge  of  truth  by  their 
own  impressions  of  the  fitness  of  things  should 
declare  all  this  to  be  artificial  and  unnecessary, 
and  should  maintain  that  the  natural  influences 
which  are  at  work  in  every  heart  in  the  direction 
of  good,  and  which  in  a  sense  are  divine  influences, 
are  alone  needed  for  purifying  and  elevating  the 
nature  of  man.  But  surely  the  teaching  of  Scrip- 
ture to  the  contrary  is  as  plain  as  can  be  con- 
ceived :  '  If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new 
creature;  old  things  are  passed  away,  behold,  all 
things  are  made  new.^ 

The  truth  is,  that  those  better  impulses  which 
remain  partly  in  the  heart  of  man,  and  constitute 
his  natural  virtue,  are  the  results  of  a  broken-  con- 
nection between  him  and  the  One  Fountain  of 


244  -S-y^  VI N^  ^^0  W LEDGE. 

goodness.  It  is  as  if  an  artery  carrying  life- 
blood  to  a  part  of  the  human  body  had  been  cut 
nearly  through^  and  only  such  a  fragment  left  as 
conveyed  now  and  then  a  drop  or  two,  contamin- 
ated moreover  by  contact  with  the  festering 
wound,  instead  of  an  ever-flowing  stream  of  pure 
and  vital  fluid.  If  a  true  vital  connection  between 
that  part  of  the  body  and  the  heart  is  contem- 
plated, a  new  artery,  so  to  speak,  is  needed.  So, 
in  like  manner,  it  is  in  a  spiritual  sense.  No  at- 
tempts to  make  the  shattered  arteries  of  human 
nature  effectual  for  carrying  life-blood  from  God 
to  the  soul  can  succeed.  It  is  by  a  new  chan- 
nel the  communication  is  now  to  be  made.  A 
man  must  be  ^  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit.^ 
The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  presents  this  new 
mode  of  bringing  human  souls  into  living  fellow- 
ship with  God.  This  is  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of 
regeneration.  It  is  a  new  fellowship  in  the 
divine  life,  a  new  communication  between  the 
emptiness  of  humanity  and  all  the  fulness  of 
God. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  245 

And  this  is  but  a  very  small  part  of  the  case. 
We  have  said  that  in  man^s  nature  as  it  now  is, 
the  communication  with  God  has  been  broken, 
and  anything  of  or  from  God  that  may  remain  in 
him  is  but  as  it  were  a  few  ruinous  chips  of  a  lost 
inheritance.  But  how  much  worse  is  the  real 
state  of  the  case !  Man  is  not  only  separated 
from  God,  but  alienated  too.  His  will  is  not  sub- 
missive to  the  Divine  will.  His  inclinations  are 
not  in  harmony  with  God^s  commands.  Disorder 
and  corruption  pervade  his  whole  heart.  Instead 
of  his  heart  turning  to  God  with  that  complete- 
ness of  desire  and  longing  which  would  enable 
him  to  draw  everything  from  Him,  it  is  turned  the 
other  way.  The  things  of  the  world  are  sweet, 
and  his  heart  goes  without  an  effort  after  them ; 
the  things  of  God  are  unattractive,  and  only  to  be 
thought  of  under  the  constraint  of  conscience. 
God  is  not  in  all  his  thoughts.  Religion  is  a 
penance ;  devotional  duties  a  painful  necessity. 

To  convince  men  of  their  need  of  regeneration, 
of  their  need  of  a  fellowship  with  God  which  is 


246  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

not  of  the  flesh  but  of  the  Spirit,  is  one  of  the 
most  difficult  but  indispensable  processes  in  the 
Christian  religion.  It  is  especially  difficult  in  the 
case  of  those  who  are  very  careful  of  any  natural 
impulses  towards  good  which  they  may  feel,  and 
diligent  in  cultivating  and  strengthening  them. 
Such  persons  are  apt  to  become  so  self-righteous 
and  self-satisfied  as  to  present  tremendous  barriers 
to  the  special  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  are 
so  satisfied  with  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  as 
to  see  no  need  for  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit. 
Ignorant  of  God^s  righteousness,  and  going  about 
to  establish  their  own  righteousness,  they  do  not 
submit  themselves  to  the  righteousness  of  God. 
Indeed,  there  is  no  obstruction  to  the  work  of 
grace  so  serious  as  a  state  of  self-satisfaction.  No 
heart  is  less  likely  to  open  for  receiving  the  stores 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  than  that  which  is  well 
pleased  with  its  own  attainments.  It  is  a  fearful 
curse  when  a  man  who  has  in  the  main  lived 
conscientiously  and  regularly  is  thereby  lulled  into 
the  delusion  that  he  ^has  attained,  and  is  already ' 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  247 

well-nigh  '  perfect/  It  is  an  infinite  blessing 
when  his  utmost  efforts  to  do  right  have  only 
shown  him  the  utter  insufficiency  of  his  own 
powers;  when  all  his  attempts  to  restrain  the 
wickedness  of  his  heart  have  but  convinced  him 
what  sorry  work  he  can  make  of  it  at  the  best ; 
and  when  the  visions  that  float  before  him  of  a 
holier  and  more  heavenly  life  serve  only  to 
increase  the  vehemence  of  his  cries  for  a  Divine 
righteousness  to  justify,  a  Divine  Spirit  to  renew, 
and  a  Divine  love  to  bless  and  satisfy  him  for 
ever. 

And  hence,  in  bringing  about  the  great 
change,  the  first  operation  of  the  Spirit  is  com- 
monly to  show  men  their  helplessness.  And 
toward  this  many  things  may  be  made  to  con- 
spire. A  view  of  their  sin  may  be  given  them, 
that  makes  them  shudder  at  the  thought  that  all 
their  life  long  they  have  been  so  regardless  of  the, 
great  God.  A  view  of  their  danger  may  be  given 
them,  that  pulls  them  up,  as  it  were — arrests  their 
attention,  makes  them  tremble  at  the  prospect  of 


248  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

the  wrath  to  come.  A  view  of  their  spiritual 
feelleness  may  be  given  them,  that  makes  them 
feel  like  children  before  a  giant  foe,  and  forces 
from  the  depths  of  their  souls  the  cry  for  help. 
And  they  may  have  such  a  sense  of  forlornness 
and  friendlessness,  such  an  impression  of  being 
aliens  and  outcasts  from  all  that  is  bright  and 
glorious  in  the  heavenly  kingdom,  as  to  feel  as  if 
plunged  in  a  very  sea  of  misery.  The  soul  is  now 
fairly  prostrate  before  God,  the  spirit  of  self-satis- 
faction is  humbled,  the  vessel  is  emptied  of  all 
that  is  born  of  the  flesh,  on  purpose  as  it  were  to 
be  replenished  with  that  which  is  born  of  the 
Spirit. 

Then  comes,  under  the  guiding  hand  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  a  view  of  Christ.  It  may  be,  in  a 
sense,  only  the  old  view — the  view  that  in  the 
letter,  so  to  speak,  has  long  been  familiar,  but 
not  in  the  spirit ;  now,  however,  shining  out  with 
a  new  lustre,  and  a  penetrating,  persuasive  light 
that  reaches  the  very  depths  of  the  soul.  Christ, 
the  Propitiation,  is  revealed  to  them  atoning  for 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  249 

their  sins  by  His  obedience  unto  death ;  Christ, 
the  Redeemer,  rescuing  them  from  all  unholy  in- 
fluences, breaking  the  chains  of  their  sin,  and 
making  them  free  indeed;  Christ,  the  Purifier, 
washing  them  in  His  own  blood  from  all  filthiness 
of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit;  Christ,  the  Teacher, 
making  known  to  them  words  of  truth  and  life 
that  shall  never  pass  away ;  Christ  the  Guide,  the 
Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life;  Christ  the 
Spouse,  loving  His  church  and  giving  Himself  for 
it,  that  He  might  sanctify  and  cleanse  it  with  the 
washing  of  water  by  the  word  ;  that  He  might 
present  it  to  Himself  a  glorious  church,  not 
having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing.  How 
thoroughly  the  remedy  seems  adapted  to  the 
disease !  How  admirably  is  such  a  Saviour,  if  He 
will  but  undertake  the  case,  able  to  remove  the 
manifold  curse  of  sin  ! 

But  sometimes,  even  where  there  is  produced 
the  sense  of  guilt  and  helplessness  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  view  of  Christ's  grace  on  the 
other,  there  is  wanting  the  mysterious  link  by 


250  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

which  the  want  of  the  sinner  is  actually  brought 
into  contact  with,  or  supplied  from,  the  grace  of 
the  Saviour.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  act  on  the  conscience^  convincing  of  sin ;  or 
that  He  act  on  the  under  standing ,  enlightening 
it  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ;  there  is  further 
needed  an  action  on  the  will^  disposing  and 
enabling  it  to  embrace  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour 
offered  in  the  Gospel.  Cases  may  occur,  and 
they  are  most  distressing  while  they  last,  in  which 
the  keenest  sense  of  unworthiness  and  the  clearest 
apprehension  of  the  fitness  of  Christ  are  con- 
nected with  a  paralysis  of  the  will,  in  consequence 
of  which  the  unhappy  sinner  stands  quivering  on 
the  edge  of  a  gulf  which  he  cannot  get  out  of 
view,  and  under  the  very  shadow  of  a  Saviour  to 
whose  arms  he  cannot  fly.  The  blessed  change 
comes  when  the  Spirit  acts  on  the  iv'ill,  so  influ- 
encing it  in  favour  of  Christ  that  all  hesitation  is 
abandoned,  and  the  soul  commits  itself  to  its 
Saviour.  Henceforth  He  is  enshrined  in  the  in- 
most sanctuary   of    the   heart;    the   divine  life 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  251 

begins  in  earnest;  old  things  are  passed  away; 
all  things  are  become  new. 

One  thing  must  be  very  apparent,  even  from 
this  bare  outline — how  different  real  conversion 
is    from    what    is    often    supposed.       Receiving 
certain  dogmas  into  the  creed — submitting  one^s 
self  to  certain  religious  forms — altering  some  of 
the  grosser  habits  of  one's  life — becoming  more 
earnest  in  the  battle   of  conscience  against   in- 
clination— such   is    conversion    in   the    view    of 
many  :  but  not  such  alone  is  conversion  as  set 
forth    in    the  Word   of    God.      The   first   step 
towards  real  conversion  is  to  feel  our  need  of  it. 
Men^  even  when  respectable  and  moral_,  get  ac- 
customed   to   so   low  a  standard  of  living_,  that 
nothing  but  a  divine  revelation  can  give   them  a 
due  conception  of  the  pure  and    lofty    ideal  to 
which  they  ought  to  aspire.     What  is  it  for  a 
man  to  awake  to  the  possibility  of  a  divine  life  in 
the  human  soul  ?     What  is  it  for  him  to  discover 
that  the  spirit  within  him  is  capable  of  an  exist- 
ence far  above  mere  buying  and  selling,  learning 


252  SA  VING  KNO WLEDGE. 

and  teaching,  loving  and  being  loved  in  the  or- 
dinary sense?  Is  it  a  mere  fevered  dream  that 
mocks  him  with  the  thought  that  it  is  possible 
for  his  soul  to  be  cured  of  all  its  disorder,  emptied 
of  its  meanness  and  bitterness,  turned  from  its 
poor,  earthly  delights  to  objects  of  infinite  worth, 
replenished  with  the  pure  affections  of  God  Him- 
self, and  fitted,  as  far  as  a  creature  can  be  fitted, 
for  pursuits  and  enjovments  corresponding  to 
those  of  the  Infinite  Creator?  Is  the  vision  of 
such  a  life  a  mere  mirage — a  wild  device  of  some 
bitter  foe,  trying  how  far  he  can  raise  him  up 
towards  heaven,  as  birds  of  prey  are  said  to  uplift 
crustacean  animals,  to  shatter  them  by  letting 
them  fall  ?  Is  the  whole  doctrine  of  Christ 
and  His  redemption,  so  wonderfully  adapted  to 
realize  all  these  soaring  visions,  the  mere  shadow 
of  old  Hebrew  traditions,  or  the  mere  product  of 
the  speculations  of  theologians?  Impossible! 
There  is  a  glorious  reality  in  these  views  of  a  life 
that  may  be,  and  in  these  views  of  the  power  of 
Jesus    of  Nazareth  to  raise  one  to   such  a  life. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE.  253 

Only  let  one  come  to  Him  who  is  the  Way  to  the 
Father_,  and  all  is  sure.  But  how  to  come  ? 
How  to  get  above  that  moral  gravitation  that 
drags  the  soul  to  earth_,  and  paralyzes  all  its  efforts 
to  rise  heavenwards  ?  One  thing  is  plain — there 
is  no  power  on  earth  that  can  overcome  gravita- 
tion. In  the  literal  sense  there  is  none^  and  in 
the  moral  sense  there  is  none.  The  power  that 
overcomes  gravitation  must  have  its  seat  in 
heaven.  From  above  must  come  the  arm  that 
uplifts  man  to  the  higher  life.  'Draw  me,  and 
we  will  run  after  thee.^  '  Oh  that  thou  wouldst 
rend  the  heavens^  that  thou  wouldst  come  down  !  ^ 
Innumerable  are  the  difficulties  and  discour- 
agements which  are  obviated  by  a  distinct  percep- 
tion and  a  firm  grasp  of  this  truth.  Struggling 
upwards  in  their  own  strength  towards  the  king- 
dom of  God,  men  find  little  or  nothing  to  reward 
their  efforts,  but  are  painfully  reminded  how  con- 
trary the  movement  is  to  that  which  is  natural  to 
them.  But  opening  our  hearts  to  admit  the  king- 
dom of  God  within,  standing  at  the  foot  of  the 


2  54  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

ladder  to  receive  what  is  borne  to  us  by  the 
descending  angels,  welcoming  the  grace  which  is 
God^s  gift^  and  which  brings  most  glory  to  God 
when  it  is  received  as  His  gift,  we  may  mount  up 
with  wings  as  eagles,  run  and  not  be  weary,  walk 
and  not  be  faint.  Only  then  can  we  work  out 
our  own  salvation,  when  God  worketh  in  us  both 
to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure.  Let  our 
motto  then  be,  ^  Waiting  and  Working.'  Wait- 
ing for  the  divine  supplies,  and  working  by  means 
of  them.  ^  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  hath  entered  into  the  mind  of  man,  what 
God  hath  prepared  for  him  thatwaiteth  on  Him.^ 
'  Wait  on  the  Lord,  be  of  good  courage,  and  He 
shall  strengthen  thine  heart.  Wait,  I  say,  on  the 
Lord.' 


XT. 

MADE  HOLY. 

'  O  IRS_,  what  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? ' — the  cry 
of  the  lostj  though  prior  in  point  of  time,  is 
not  prior  in  importance  to  this,  the  question  of 
the  saved,  ^  What  must  I  do  to  be  sanctified  ?  ^ 
To  be  sanctified — in  plain  English,  to  be  made 
holy — is,  to  use  the  admirable  definition  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly's  Catechism, '  the  work  of 
God's  free  grace,  whereby  we  are  renewed  in  the 
whole  man  after  the  image  of  God,  and  are  enabled 
more  and  more  to  die  unto  sin  and  live  unto 
righteousness.'  But  since — to  borrow  an  illustra- 
tion from  a  familiar  object — it  requires  as  much 
skill  in  contrivance  and  power  in  execution  to  re- 
store the  image  to  a  coin  from  \vhich  time  has 
effaced  the  features  as  it  did  to  impress  it  there 


256  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

originally,  even  so  to  renew  man  in  the  image 
of  God  is  plainly  a  work  as  great  and  divine  as  it 
was  to  form  him  in  that  image  at  the  first.  In 
point  of  fact,  this  is  a  new  creation ;  and  to  Him 
therefore  who,  when  creating  Adam,  said,  ^  Let 
us  make  man  in  our  image/  David  turned  his 
face  and  prayer  to  cry,  ^  Create  in  me  a  clean 
heart,  O  Lord,  and  renev^  a  right  spirit  within 
me  ! ' 

He  who  has  lost  the  image  of  God  is  like  a 
man  who  has  lost  his  life — he  has  neither  the  will 
nor  the  power  to  restore  it.  So  far,  for  instance, 
as  Lazarus'  power  and  will  were  concerned,  his 
dead  body,  having  neither,  would  have  remained 
in  the  grave  to  the  day  of  judgment :  nor  had  the 
current  of  the  dead  man's  blood  begun  again  to 
circulate,  nor  his  heart  to  beat,  unless  the  voice, 
which  said,  ^  Lazarus,  come  forth,'  had  been  that 
which,  at  the  beginning,  called  our  world  and  all 
others  into  being.  Spiritual  is  as  much  as  natural 
life  the  gift  of  God  :  and  to  raise  man  from  a 
state  of  nature  into  a  state  of  grace,  to  convert  a 


MADE  HOLY.  257 


sinner  into  a  saint^  is  a  work,  though  it  may  seem 
less  surprising^  not  less  great  and  divine  than  ,it 
would  be  to  change  a  dog  into  a  man,  or  a  man 
into  an  angel.  St  Paul  knew  this.  Therefore 
he  offers  no  unnecessary  prayer  at  the  throne  of 
grace,  imposes  no  unnecessary  task  on  God,  and 
fosters  in  his  Thessalonian  converts  no  unneces- 
sary humility,  when  he  prays  on  their  behalf,  ^  The 
very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you  wholly  !  ^ — and 
speaking  of  God  elsewhere  to  the  same  church  he 
says,  ^  Who  hath  from  the  beginning  chosen  you 
to  salvation  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit 
and  belief  of  the  truth.^  Nor  than  Him,  as 
through  Jesus  Christ  the  God  of  peace,  who 
accomplishes  this  work  by  the  effectual  operation 
of  His  own  Holy  Spirit— is  there  any  other  source 
of  sanctification.  None  else  is  recognized  in  the 
Scriptures,  or  realized  in  the  experience  of  believers. 
There  are,  as  I  shall  afterwards  show,  means 
of  sanctification.  These  it  is  our  duty  and  privi- 
lege to  use  diligently.     But  we  are  never  to  lose 

sight  of  this — that,  apart  from  the  influences  of 
17 


258  SA  VING  KNO WLEDGE. 

the  Holy  Spirit,  these  are  vain;  altogether  vain; 
nor  able  of  themselves — to  borrow  a  figure  from 
our  Lord— to  do  more  than  cleanse  the  outside  of 
the  cup  and  platter;  to  whitewash  the  building, 
leaving  it,  however,  as  much  as  before,  a  dismal, 
doleful  sepulchre,  full  of  dead  men^s  bones  and  of 
all  uncleanness.  No  mistake  can  be  more  fatal 
than  one  which  people,  not  outwardly  vicious, 
are  very  apt  to  fall  into — that,  namely,  of  mis- 
taking, not  only  reformation  for  regeneration, 
but  outward  propriety  of  life  and  conduct  for 
sanctification  of  the  heart.  Beware  of  this — the 
error,  the  fatal  error,  into  which  the  Pharisee 
fell.  Correct — perhaps  even  strictly  correct — in 
his  outward  demeanour,  fasting  twice  a  week,  and 
giving  tithes  of  all  he  possessed,  he  stands  well 
in  his  own  esteem  ;  nor  doubting  that  he  held  as 
high  a  place  in  God's  esteem,  when  his  eye  falls 
on  a  poor  publican  who  stands  afar  off,  and, 
beating  on  his  breast,  cries,  *  God  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner,'  this  miserable  formalist,  this 
whited  sepulchre,  gives  thanks  that  he  is  not  such 


MADE  HOLY.  259 


as  that  man.  Ah_,  could  he  have  seen  at  that 
moment  the  proud,  ungodly  heart  that  lay  con- 
cealed beneath  this  fair  exterior,  and  could  he 
have  heard  at  that  moment  the  judgment  heaven 
pronounced  on  his  case,  how  amazed  had  he  been  ! 
— as  much  astonished  as  Belshazzar,  when,  from 
the  fiery  letters  on  his  palace  wall,  Daniel  read 
out  his  doom — ^  Mene,  Mene,  Tekel,  Upharsin, 
Thy  kingdom  is  divided;  God  hath  numbered 
thy  kingdom  and  finished  it/  While  many  may, 
to  their  own  great  loss,  neglect  the  means  of 
grace,  let  those  who  use  them  beware  lest,  proud 
of  that,  satisfied  with  doing  so,  they  get  puffed  up 
with  spiritual  pride,  and  stand  in  the  same  con- 
demnation as  the  self-righteous  Pharisee.  Regu- 
larity in  prayer  and  the  reading  of  God^s  holy 
word,  attendance  on  public  worship  and  the  other 
ordinances  of  religion,  the  practice  of  the  various 
moralities  and  charities  of  life,  are  commendable, 
and  indeed  indispensable;  but  these  cannot 
create  a  clean  heart,  nor  renew  a  right  spirit 
within   us.     The  Ethiopian   cannot   change   his 


26o  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

skin,  nor  the  leopard   his  spots;    nor   anything 
these  hearts  of  ours  but  the  grace  of  God.     With- 
out that,  without  the  power  and  blessing  of  the ' 
Holy  Spirit,  the  means  of  grace  are  wells  without 
water,  clouds  without  rain. 

The  necessity  of  this  great  work,  a  work  which 
has  God  for  its  author,  man  for  its  subject,  and 
for  its  object  his  restoration  to  the  image  of  God, 
is  plain,  almost  self-evident.  Take  a  simple 
illustration.  In  virtue  of  her  royal  prerogative, 
the  Queen  may  pardon  all  the  criminals — the 
thieves,  robbers,  murderers,  malefactors,  scum  and 
dregs  of  society — which  our  prisons  hold.  Let 
her  do  so,  and  every  jail  would  be  at  once  thrown 
open.  But  this,  illustrating  the  adage,  that  it  is 
not  always  right  for  people  to  do  what  they  have 
a  right  to  do,  would  be  justly  regarded  as  a  public 
calamity ;  and  every  man  who  had  any  regard  to 
the  safety  of  his  person  and  the  security  of  his 
property  would  take  the  opening  of  the  prison- 
doors  as  a  warning  to  shut  his  own.  Not  only 
so,  but  ere  we  would  allow  the  tenants  of  the  jail 


MADE  HOLY.  261 


to  enter  our  houses  and  mingle  with  our  families, 
we  should  require  to  be  satisfied  that  their  habits 
and  hearts  were  changed — that  the  drunkard  had 
become  sober_,  the  thief  honest,  the  liar  true,  the 
vile  pure  ;  that  they  had  undergone,  in  short,  such 
a  change  as  is  pictured  forth  in  this  lov^ely  vision 
of  the  time,  when  God  shall  pour  out  His 
Spirit  upon  all  flesh,  and  *^the  wolf  shall  dwell 
with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with 
the  kid,  and  the  calf,  and  the  young  lion,  and  the 
fatling  together ;  and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them  ; 
and  the  cow  and  the  bear  shall  feed,  and  their 
young  ones  shall  lie  down  together;  and  the  lion 
shall  eat  straw  like  the  ox,  and  the  sucking  child 
shall  play  on  the  hole  of  the  asp,  and  the  weaned 
child  shall  put  his  hand  on  the  cockatrice^  den ; 
they  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy 
mountain,  for  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the 
sea/ 

Now  suppose  that  the  doors,  not  of  our  prisons, 
but  of  hell  itself,  were  thrown  open — which  shall 


262  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

never  be^  for  their  worm  dieth  not,  and  their  fire 
is  not  quenched — but  suppose  they  were_,  would 
the  gates  of  heaven  open  to  receive  its  inmates? 
No.  Over  them  these  words  stand  inscribed, 
'  There  entereth  nothing  here  to  hurt  or  to  defile/ 
The  door  by  which  Manasseh  and  the  woman 
that  was  a  sinner,  by  which  the  thief  of  the  cross 
and  Saul  the  persecutor,  have  entered  into  glory, 
would  be  shut  in  their  face ;  as,  indeed,  from  the 
holy  nature  of  its  society,  heaven  would  be  the 
last  place  where  they  would  seek  to  be  admitted. 
God  would  not,  and  could  not,  receive  such  as, 
though  pardoned,  were  still  unsanctified ;  and 
from  their  company  every  spirit  of  the  just  made 
perfect,  even  their  own  father  and  mother,  would 
shrink  with  holy  horror.  If  so,  it  is  plain  that  it 
is  not  enough  to  be  pardoned,  to  be  justified.  We 
require  also  to  be  sanctified,  to  be  delivered  from 
the  power  and  purified  from  the  love  of  sin. 
Glory  be  to  God,  this  has  been  provided,  amply 
provided  for.  We  are,  as  an  Apostle  says,  com- 
plete in  Christ.    He  who,  by  dying  in  their  steady 


MADE  HOLY.  263 


has  delivered  His  people  from  the  punishment  of 
sin,  bestows  the  gift  of  His  Holy  Spirit  to  purify 
them  from  its  love  and  deliver  them  from  its 
power.  Thus,  with  one  hand  Jesus  closes  the 
gate  of  hell,  and  with  the  other  throws  open  that 
of  heaven;  and  thus  those  who  believe  in  Him, 
who  cling  to  Him  as  all  their  salvation,  and  who 
seek  Him  as  all  their  desire,  receiving  with  a  title 
to  the  '  inheritance  of  the  saints '  a  meetness  for 
it,  shall  not  only  not  perish  in  the  lake  of  fire,  but 
shall  enjoy  everlasting  life  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  So,  to  John^s  question  respecting  those 
whom  he  saw  arrayed  in  white  robes,  with  crowns 
on  their  heads  and  palms  in  their  hands,  the 
angel  replied,  ^  These  are  they  which  came  out  of 
great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes 
and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb; 
therefore  are  they  before  the  throne  of  God, 
and  serve  Him  day  and  night  in  his  temple; 
they  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither  thirst  any 
more,  for  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of 
the  throne  shall  feed  them,  and  shall  lead   them 


264  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

unto  living  fountains  of  water^  and    God    shall 
wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes/ 

In  regard  to  the  nature  of  this  work_,  I  remark  : 

T.  Sanctification  consists  in  the  mortifying  of 
our  sinful  nature. 

An  Apostle  says,  ^  They  who  are  Christ's  have 
crucified  the  flesh  with  the  affections  and  lusts;' 
and  it  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  say  that,  by 
the  term  ^  flesh/  he  does  not  mean  this  mortal 
body,  but  that  corrupt  nature  which  our  first 
parents  transmitted  to  all  their  children.  Its 
character  may  be  seen  in  its  works ;  and  what 
these  are,  when  fully  developed,  may  be  read  in 
its  awful  catalogue — ^  adultery,  fornication,  un- 
cleanness,  lasciviousnesss,  idolatry,  witchcraft, 
hatred,  variance,  emulations,  wrath,  strifes,  sedi- 
tions, heresies,  envyings,  murders,  drunkenness, 
revellings,  and  such  like ;  of  the  which  I  tell  you 
before,'  says  Paul,  '  as  I  have  also  told  you  in 
time  past,  that  they  which  do  such  things  shall 
not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  heaven.' 

Of  all  natural  deaths  which  man  can  suffer,  or 


MADE  HOLY.  265 


violent  ones  which  he  can  inflict^  none  is  perhaps 
more  painful  than  crucifixion.  Struck  down  by 
a  flash  of  lightnings  or  deprived  as  suddenly  of  life 
by  any  other  cause,  man  dies  without  a  touch  of 
pain.  Such  an  advantage  is  this  to  those  who 
have  made  their  '  calling  and  election  sure/  who 
are  ready  at  any  time  to  meet  the  bridegroom,  that 
we,  not  believing  in  '  extreme  unction/  have  never 
been  able  to  sympathize  with  that  passage  of  the 
Liturgy  which  teaches  the  worshippers  to  say, 
from  ^  sudden  death,^  as  well  as  from  ^  battle  and 
murder,  good  Lord,  deliver  us  !  ^  To  a  good  man 
sudden  death  is  sudden  glory ;  but  for  that  very 
reason  such  a  death  is  not  suited  to  describe  sanc- 
tification — in  other  words,  the  destruction  of  his 
depraved  and  corrupt  nature  in  a  child  of  God. 
Those,  again,  who  die,  as  most  men  do,  of  disease, 
suffer  usually  so  much  pain  as  to  make  it  one  of 
the  special  enjoyments  of  heaven,  that  ^  its  inhab- 
itant never  says  that  he  is  sick/  that  there  is  no 
death  there.  Yet  the  pain  of  such  death-beds  is 
not  very  formidable  ;  and  it  is  chiefly  because  the 


266  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE, 

*dark  valley^  opens  on  another  world,  and  ^ after 
death  the  judgment/  that  many  are  so  averse  to 
enter  it.  Were  men  assured  that  there  is  no  hell 
there,  no  punishment  there,  no  place  but  heaven 
there,  thousands  who  regard  death  as  the  king  of 
terrors,  would  be  as  willing  as  they  are  now 
reluctant  to  die ;  and,  therefore,  an  ordinary 
death — apart  from  the  consideration  of  its  solemn 
issues — is  usually  attended  with  so  little  suffering 
as  to  offer  no  adequate  figure  of  the  pain  and 
agony  inseparable  from  the  mortifying  of  the 
flesh.  It  is  therefore  to  crucifixion,  whose  in- 
tensely painful  and  protracted  agonies  the  Apostle 
himself  may  have  witnessed,  that  St  Paul  turns 
for  a  figure  strong  and  bold  enough  to  describe 
the  death  of  sin — that  death  to  which  all  who  are 
Christ^s  must  of  necessity,  and,  rather  than  lose 
Him,  will  of  choice,  submit. 

Believers  are  thus  spoken  of  as  being  ^  crucified 
with  Christ,^ — a  term  that  calls  up  to  our  minds 
that  manner  of  death  which  our  blessed  Lord  en- 
dured for  us.  By  the  side  of  the  dying,  in  the  last 


MADE  HOLY.  267 

struggles  of  expiring  nature^  I  have  seen  the  fea- 
tures frightfully  contorted_,  the  body  frightfully 
convulsed ;  but  the  appalling  spectacle  had  this 
comfort,  that  the  sufferer  vv^as  unconscious^  happily 
insensible,  as  the  spirit  was  breaking  out  of  its 
mortal  tenement,  to  the  throes  and  pangs  of  dis-^ 
solution.  Such,  however,  was  not  the  death 
which  Jesus  suffered  when,  to  atone  for  sin,  He 
took  its  direful  punishment  on  Himself;  and  in 
the  great  love  wherewith  He  loved  us  died,  the 
just  for  the  unjust,  that  we  might  be  saved.  Be- 
hold the  Lamb  of  God  !  Loaded  with  infamy 
and  with  the  tree.  He  sinks  beneath  the  heavy 
burden,  and  falls  exhausted,  fainting  on  the  street 
— unpitied  save  by  some  women,  who,  to  the 
everlasting  honour  of  their  sex,  bewailed  and 
lamented  Him.  No  kind  hands  are  there  to  make 
His  bed  in  His  sickness;  nor  weeping  friends  to 
smooth  His  pillow.  Rudely  throwing  Him  down 
on  tlie  cross,  cruel  and  malignant  enemies  drive 
the  iron  through  His  hands  and  feet — till,  weak- 
ened by  loss  of  blood  and  long-protracted  tortures, 


268  SA  VJNG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

He  yields  to  the  power  of  death,  and  bowing  His 
blessed  head  gives  up  the  ghost!  And  what 
agony  His_,  as  raised  aloft  on  the  cross_,  He  hung 
by  these  torn,  tender  members ! 

I  do  not  say,  it  were  too  much  to  say,  that  all 
who  are  Christ^s,  in  renouncing  the  pleasures  of 
sin,  suffer  pain  to  be  compared  with  His,  or  equal 
to  that  of  any  who  die  on  a  cross.  There  may  be 
such  cases.  The  roots  of  sin  are  not  drawn  out 
sometimes  but  by  a  fearful  wrench.  We  see 
people  who  prefer  their  sins  to  the  enjoyment  of 
health ;  to  the  possession  of  property ;  to  a  good 
reputation ;  to  the  regard  of  friends ;  to  the  in- 
terests of  their  children;  even  to  life  itself !  The 
poor  drunkard,  for  instance,  rather  than  part  with 
his  vicious  indulgence,  will  part  with  all  these, 
and  drain  the  cup,  though  at  the  bottom  of  it  he 
sees  the  loss  of  character,  a  beggared  family, 
death  in  this  world,  and  damnation  in  the  next. 
For  him,  in  some  cases,  to  renounce  his  habits 
may  require  greater  resolution  than  martyrs,  who 
walked   with   firm   step   and    cheek    unblanched. 


MADE  HOLY.  269 


have  brought  to  bloody  scaffold  or  burning  stake. 
All  I  mean  to  assert  is  that_,  as  crucifixion  implies 
not  the  destruction  only^  but  the  painful  destruc- 
tion of  the  body,  so  they  who  are  Christ^s  will 
destroy  the  flesh,  denying  themselves  to  all  un- 
godliness and  worldly  lusts,  though  that  should 
cost  them  sufferings  equal  to  what  he  endures 
who  cuts  off  a  right  hand ;  or  plucks  out  a  right 
eye  ;   or  expires  amid  the  agonies  of  a  cross. 

This  should  certainly  suggest  the  important 
practical  question,  whether  we  have  ever  taken 
our  sins,  and  nailed  them  to  the  cross  ?  But  the 
question  being,  not  whether  our  corruption  is  de- 
stroyed, but  whether  it  is  being  so  r  not  whether 
it  is  dead,  but  whether  it  is  dying  ?  for  men  to 
allege,  as  some  do,  that  they  are  denying  them- 
selves this  or  that  other  sinful  pleasure  is  some- 
thing, but  not  enough.  The  Pharisee  himself 
could  do  so.  He  gave  thanks  to  God  that  he 
was  not  an  extortioner,  nor  in  many  respects 
as  other  men.  But  what  will  such  pleas  avail? 
What  would  it  avail  a  robber,  to  plead,  and  justly 


270  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

plead^  that  he  is  guiltless  of  the  crime  of  murder; 
or  the  drunkard,  that  he  is  not  a  thief;  or  the 
covetous^  that  he  has  committed  no  overt  act  of 
dishonesty ;  or  a  man  of  revengeful  temper,  that 
he  has  not  actually  injured  the  property  or  the 
person  of  any  who  have  done  him  wrong  ?  Sanc- 
tification  embraces  the  whole  man ;  and  the  ques- 
tion is  not  so  much  whether  we  have  mortified  the 
flesh  in  this  or  in  that  respect,  as  whether  sin  in 
every  form  has  ceased_,  I  do  not  say  to  dwell  within 
us,  but  to  have  dominion  over  us  ?  And  if  we  have 
been  enabled  through  divine  grace,  though  with 
sore  pain,  to  deny  ourselves  to  pleasures  which  we 
once  indulged  in — and  to  deny  ourselves  to  them, 
not  because  they  destroyed  our  health,  or  wasted 
our  property,  or  had  lost  their  power  over  us 
through  age  or  change  of  circumstances,  but  be- 
cause they  were  offensive  in  the  sight  of  a  holy 
God,  because  thev  dishonoured  our  blessed  Lord, 
because  they  wounded  our  consciences,  and  be- 
cause they  were  ruining,  not  so  much  this  dying 
body,  as  our  precious  souls — then  are  we  crucify- 


MADE  HOLY.  27] 


ing  the  flesh.     This  is  to  be  sanctified,  to  die  to 
sin,  and  live  to  righteousness. 

The  gradual  nature  of  this  work  will  form  the 
subjects  for  future  remarks ;  but  I  may  observe, 
before  parting  with  the  figure  of  crucifixion,  that 
the  destruction  of  indwelling  sin,  like  death  on  a 
cross,  is  not  only  a  very  painful,  but  is  also  a  slow 
and  lingering  process.  No  doubt  cases — very 
remarkable  cases — have  occurred  where  the  '  old 
man  ^  was  slain  by,  so  to  speak,  a  single  blow : 
the  crucifying  of  the  flesh  being  begun  and 
finished  within  the  brief  time  a  man  survives  who 
has  been  nailed  to  a  cross.  It  was  so  with  the 
penitent  thief.  But  his  case  forms  no  rule.  On 
the  contrary,  the  exception,  here  as  elsewhere, 
proves  the  rule — his  conversion  and  his  sudden 
sanctification,  all  accomplished  within  the  space  of 
some  two  or  three  hours,  being  as  extraordinary 
an  exhibition  of  divine  grace,  as  the  resurrection 
of  the  saints  in  the  neighbouring  tombs  was  an 
extraordinary  display  of  almighty  power. 

Divines  have  distinguished,  and  very  properly. 


272  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 


between  justification  and  sanctification.  They 
call  the  first  an  act,  the  second  a  work  of  free 
grace  ;  and  this  they  do  because  justification  is 
accomplished  in  a  moment^,  while  sanctification, 
less  like  a  flash  of  lightning  than  the  morning 
light  which  shines  more  and  more  unto  the  per- 
fect day,  advances  by  progressive  stages,  and  may 
take  even  long  years  to  finish.  Therefore,  it  is 
said  in  the  Westminster  Assembly's  Catechism — 
one,  I  may  remark,  which,  though  most  in  use  in 
Scotland,  was  chiefly  the  work  of  Englishmen — 
that  they  who  are  sanctified  are  ^  enabled  more 
and  more  to  die  unto  sin  and  live  unto  right- 
eousness.' Hence  they  are  said  to  be  crucified 
with  Christ — the  most  appropriate  of  all  figures — ■ 
seeing,  as  we  read  in  Martyrologies,  that  some  con- 
demned for  their  Master's  sake  to  their  Master's 
death  hung  for  days  in  protracted  agony,  ere  they 
exchanged  the  cross  for  the  crown  of  martyrdom. 
Experience  proves  that  our  depraved  and 
sinful  nature  is  not  so  easily  destroyed  as  many 
seem  to  suppose ;  especially  such  as  have  the  un- 


MADE  HOLY.        >  273 


speakable  folly  to  place  their  hopes  in  a  death- 
bed repentance.  When  the  convert  has  dragged 
the  'old  man^  to  the  cross,  and  nailed  him 
there,  how  often  does  he  find  that  his  enemy 
is  not  only  not  dead,  but,  tenacious  of  life, 
seems  hardly  dying!  The  ^ flesh ^  wars  against 
the  spirit ;  the  ^  flesh  ^  makes  strong  and  ob- 
stinate resistance  to  grace :  and  but  that  the  be- 
liever is  upheld  by  God's  Spirit,  but  that  God 
according  to  His  promise  fights  against  them 
that  fight  against  Him,  the 'flesh'  would  triumph 
in  the  end ;  nor  could  God's  people  say,  as, 
blessed  be  God,  with  Paul  they  can,  'We  are 
troubled  on  every  side,  yet  not  distressed ; 
we  are  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair;  perse- 
cuted, but  not  forsaken;  cast  down,  but  not 
destroyed.'  Alas,  how  often  does  the  carnal 
nature,  which  we  had  almost  hoped  was  extin- 
guished, revived  by  the  breath  of  some  sudden 
temptation,  flame  out  anew,  like  fire  smouldering 
in  the  ashes!  Some  besetting  sin,  long  denied 
indulgence,  against  which  we  have  prayed,  and 

18 


274  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

watched,  and  wrestled,  appears  to  be  dead;  the 
'  old  man  ^  hangs  motionless,  to  appearance  life- 
less, on  the  cross ;  when,  like  the  convulsive 
movement  of  a  body  from  which  bystanders  sup- 
posed the  life  was  gone,  in  some  bad  word,  or 
bad  deed,  or  bad  thought,  the  ^  old  man^  lives 
again,  and  the  '  new  man '  learns  to  his  sorrow 
that  the  flesh  he  had  crucified  is  not  yet  dead. 

The  entire  death  of  sin — a  consummation 
devoutlv  to  be  wished  for — is  a  blessins;  reserved 
for  the  close  of  life.  We  cannot  indeed  be 
too  diligent  in  mortifying  sin,  in  crucifying  every 
limb  and  member  of  the  flesh.  Still  if  a  man  will 
— as  every  man  should — examine  himself  and 
^  prove  his  own  work,'  the  question  is  not  whether 
sin  is  altogether  crucified,  but  is  crucified  at  all  ? 
— is  whether, though  it  be  not  with  a  perfect  hatred, 
we  really  hate  it  ? — is  whether  we  are  delivered, 
though  not  completely,  from  its  power? — is  whe- 
ther it  has  ceased  to  reigUy  though  it  has  not 
ceased  to  remain  within  us  ?  It  is  slow  work 
dying  on  a  cross,  but  slower  still  dying  to  sin.  No 


MADE  HOLY.  275 


vile  serpent,  no  venomous  reptile,  so  tenacious  of 
life  as  a  bosom  sin !  However,  take  comfort. 
Christians;  God  will  perfect  that  which  con- 
cerneth  us  —  a  hope  which,  thanks  be  to  God, 
shows  the  believer  a  Father^s  reconciled  counten- 
ance shining  on  him  through  the  darkest  cloud  ; 
a  hope  which  will  enable  you,  while  confessing 
with  Paul,  'The  good  that  I  would,  I  do  not;  but 
the  evil  which  I  would  not,  that  I  do,'  in  almost 
the  same  breath  to  exclaim,  '■  I  thank  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ....  there  is  no  condemn- 
ation to  them  who  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  walk 
not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit !  ^ 

II.  Sanctification  lies  in  conformity  to  the 
mind  of  Christ. 

These  bodies  of  ours  are  liable  to  an  amazing 
number  of  diseases ;  for,  though  there  is  but  one 
way  by  which  we  enter  the  world,  there  are  a 
thousand  doors  by  which  to  leave  it.  So  insecure 
indeed  is  the  citadel  of  life,  it  lies  open  on  so 
many  sides  to  attack,  that  there  are  none  of  our 
organs    but  may  become  the  seat  of  a  painful 


276  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

and  fatal  malady.  To  protect  us^  to  cure  disease, 
men  have  ransacked  the  herbs  of  the  field  and  the 
bowels  of  the  earth ;  but  have  found  in  neither 
what  they  sought  in  both,  any  elixir  vitce,  any 
remedy  against  death,  any  specific  of  sufficient 
virtue  to  cure  all  manner  of  diseases.  But  such  a 
power  resided  in  the  hand  of  Christ.  The  cures 
wrought  by  its  simple  touch  were  as  magnificent 
as  they  were  many.  Not  less  sovereign  than 
sudden  in  action,  it  gave  eyes  to  the  blind,  voice 
to  the  dumb,  ears  to  the  deaf,  motion  to  the 
withered  arm,  rest  to  the  palsied  limb,  and  life 
even  to  the  dead.  In  the  blessed  hands  his  ene- 
mies nailed  to  the  cross  the  world  saw  what  had 
been  esteemed  a  dream  at  length  realized — a 
remedy  for  all  manner  of  diseases ;  a  cure  for 
death  itself.  Where  Christ  was,  there  was  need 
neither  for  drugs  nor  doctors. 

And  were  God  to  impart  the  same  mind  to  all 
men  that  was  in  Jesus  Christ,  equally  unneces- 
sary were  all  the  ordinary  means  of  checking  and 
curing  our  moral  diseases.     Let  God  so  pour  out 


MADE  HOLY.  277 


His  Spirit  on  all  flesh  as  that  all  men  shall  be 
transformed  into  the  image  of  Christy  and  the  fa- 
ther might  break  his  rod ;  the  sovereign  lay  aside 
his  sceptre;  the  soldier  sheath  his  sword;  justice 
discharge  her  courts ;  and  with  prison-doors 
thrown  open,  and  no  house-door  barred,  we 
should  sleep  in  peace — fearing  injury  from  others 
as  httle  as  we  had  done  from  Christ  himself. 
St  Paul  says,  'Looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author 
and  finisher  of  our  faith,  who,  for  the  joy  that  was 
set  before  Him,  endured  the  cross,  despising 
the  shame,  and  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  throne  of  God — and  let  us  consider  him  that 
endured  such  contradiction  of  sinners/  He  lived 
more  than  thirty  years  on  earth,  nor  injured  any 
one;  accused  of  many  crimes.  He  committed 
none ;  He  suffered  innumerable  wrongs,  but 
never  inflicted  any;  into  no  eye -did  He  ever 
bring  a  tear,  nor  send  a  pang  through  any  heart ; 
shedding  blessings  around  Him  wherever  He 
went,  He  could  have  crowded  the  hall  of  judgment 
with  living  evidences  of  His  power  and  goodness  ; 


278  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

nor,  though  in  their  thirst  for  His  blood  they  sub- 
orned men  to  swear  away  His  hfe,  could  those 
to  whom  Judas  betrayed  his  Master  find  a  single 
person  to  convict  Him  of  a  single  crime. 

In  every  relation  of  life  our  Lord  presents 
a  perfect  example :  as  a  child.  He  grew  in  wisdom 
as  in  stature  ;  and,  subject  to  Joseph  and  Mary, 
He  whom  angels  obeyed,  obeyed  them — as  a  man, 
He  went  about  doino;  p'ood  ;  consecrating;  His 
powers  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  happiness  of 
mankind.  He  was  eyes  to  the  blind,  and  feet 
to  the  lame,  and  life  to  the  dead ;  He  made 
widows^  hearts  to  sing  for  joy,  and  earned  the 
blessing  of  thousands  that  were  ready  to  perish 
— as  a  master.  He  was  kind,  considerate,  gentle  ; 
treating  his  disciples  more  as  friends  than  serv- 
ants, what  a  beautiful  contrast  did  His  demean- 
our offer  to  the  haughtiness  with  which  many 
treat  and  trample  on  their  inferiors — as  a  be- 
nefactor, He  shrunk  from  ostentation,  and,  un- 
like the  Pharisees,  who,  to  attract  attention  and 
win  the   praise   of  men,    dispensed  their  charity 


MADE  HOLY.  279 


to  the  sound  of  trumpets^  He  did  good,  as  the 
poet  says,  by  stealth;  charging  those  whom 
He  blessed  to  conceal  the  name  of  their  bene- 
factor— as  a  lover  of  God,  He  delighted  in  hold- 
ing communion  with  His  Father,  and  made  it  His 
meat  and  drink  to  do  His  will — as  a  worshipper. 
He,  who  could  best  dispense  with  them,  devoutly 
attended  on  all  the  ordinances  of  religion  ;  though 
giving  life  to  dead  souls  through  the  baptism  of 
His  Spirit,  He  sought  baptism  by  water  at  the 
hands  of  John  ;  and  though  Himself  the  object  of 
prayer,  He  prayed  without  ceasing,  and,  often 
spending  the  whole  night  on  His  knees,  gave 
to  devotion  the  hours  which  the  world  gave  to 
sleep  —  as  a  sufferer,  who  can  be  compared  to 
Him?  By  that  cross  where  He  was  dumb,  open- 
ing not  His  mouth  but  to  say,  '  Father,  not  my 
will,  but  thine  be  done !  ^  reminding  us  of  those 
plants  that  lend  sweet  odours  to  the  hand  that 
bruises  them,  yonder  where  He  prays  that  His 
murderers  might  be  forgiven,  we  lose  sight  of  the 
faith  of  Abraham,  the  meekness  of  Moses,  and  the 


28o  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

patience  of  Job.  Like  stars  at  sunrise^  these 
pale  and  vanish  in  the  dazzHng  effulgence  of  this 
Sun  of  Righteousness  ! 

Such  was  Christ,  and  sanctification  lies  in 
conformity  to  His  temper,  mind,  and  life.  In 
all  these  things  He  has  set  us  an  example  that  we 
should  follow  His  steps;  and  since  we  are  assured 
that  unless  the  same  mind — though  it  may  be 
only  in  the  bud,  in  the  seed,  in  the  feebleness  of 
infancy — be  in  us  as  was  in  Jesus  Christ,  we  are 
none  of  His,  that  becomes  a  test  of  Christian 
character.  Without  conformity  to  Him,  we  are 
no  more  to  be  called  Christians  than  a  body 
without  life  is  to  be  called  a  man.  Attire  the 
dead  like  a  bride,  and  with  its  crown  of  flowers 
and  sparkling  jewels^  the  corpse  but  looks  the 
ghastlier ;  whitewash  the  sepulchre,  and,  full  of 
dead  men^s  bones  and  all  uncleanness,  the  inside 
seems  the  fouler;  let  Judas  kiss  his  Master,  and 
we  recoil  the  more  from  his  treachery — it  appears 
the  baser  and  the  blacker.  Even  so  the  form  of 
religion  without  its  power,  the  body  of  religion 


MADE  HOLY. 


without  its  spirit^  a  sanctimonious  profession 
with  an  unsanctified  heart,  instead  of  recom- 
mending any  to  God^  only  renders  them  more 
hateful  in  His  sight.  Be  assured  that  it  is  those, 
and  those  only,  who  reflect  Christ^s  image_,  and 
whose  hearts  are  tuned  to  harmony  with  His 
own,  that  are  saved  by  sanctification  of  the 
Spirit  and  belief  of  the  truth.  He  who  died 
for  His  people  lives  in  them ;  renewing  them 
by  His  grace,  imbuing  them  with  His  Spirit,  and 
moulding  them  into  the  fashion  of  His  own 
heavenly  image.  He  so  helps  them  to  die  to  sin 
and  live  to  righteousness,  that,  they  also  can  use 
the  bold  language  of  Paul  and  say,  '  I  am  cruci- 
fied with  Christ;  nevertheless  I  live,  yet  not  I, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me;  and  the  life  which  I  now 
live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of 
God,  who  loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me.' 

Let  all  Christians,  then,  seek  to  purify  them- 
selves even  as  Christ  is  pure ;  or,  as  it  is  other- 
wise expressed,  seek  to  be  perfect  as  their  Father 
in  heaven  is  perfect.     But  this  is  an  object,  let 


282  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

me  say,  that  cannot  be  attained  in  any  measure 
bat  by  daily^  unceasing  efforts,  as,  to  use  a  figure 
of  Scripture,  they  mount  up  on  eagles'  wings. 
Bird  of  the  keenest  eye,  bird  of  the  broadest  wing, 
bird  of  the  highest  flight,  let  her  suspend  her 
efforts,  and  she  does  not  hang  sustained  by  her 
plumage  —  poised  in  the  empty  air.  Ceasing 
to  rise,  the  eagle  begins  to  sink,  drawn  down  from 
the  skies  to  the  earth  by  virtue  of  its  strong 
attraction  ;  and  to  a  soul  which  naturally,  accord- 
ing to  the  words  of  David  and  to  all  experience, 
'  cleaveth  to  the  dust,'  this  world  offers  attractions 
we  cannot  overcome  but  by  keeping  the  wings  of 
faith  and  prayer  in  constant  play.  To  be  holy, 
to  be  meet  for  heaven,  we  must  cultivate  every 
Christian  grace  with  diligence.  God  is  no  patron 
of  sloth  and  idleness,  to  do  for  us  what  we  can  do 
for  ourselves.  In  the  cultivation  of  the  soul,  as 
of  the  soil,  we  are  to  be  fellow-workers  with  Him. 
Sanctification  is  the  work  of  His  Spirit;  but  the 
work  of  His  Spirit  in  co-operation  with  ours.  He 
holds  the  helm,  but  we  are  to  pull  the  oars.      He 


MADE  HOL  Y.  283 


sends  thfe  showers,  but  we  are  to  plough  the  field, 
and  sow  the  seed, — lookincr  up  for  the  blessing,  and 
drawing  it  down  with  this  prayer  of  David  on 
our  lips,  '  Let  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  our  God  be 
upon  us,  and  establish  Thou  the  work  of  our  hands 
upon  usj  yea,  the  work  of  our  hands  establish 
Thou  it  !  ' 

in.  I  go  on  now  to  say  that  sanctification, 
while  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  is  accomplished 
through  the  use  of  means.     There  is, — 

I.  Prayer.  In  their  joys  and  sorrows,  in 
their  trials  and  triumphs  also,  the  children  of 
Israel,  during  their  sojourn  in  the  wilderness, 
present  a  striking  picture  of  the  conduct  and 
fortunes  of  Christ^s  Church  on  earth;  and  in 
nothing  more  than  the  use  their  history  teaches 
us  to  miake  of,  and  the  confidence  it  teaches  us  to 
place  in,  prayer.  We  have  many  remarkable 
examples  of  this ;  and  none  more  to  our  present 
purpose  than  what  is  related  as  having  occurred 
in  Rephidim.  It  has  been  often  observed  that  a 
season  of  great  privileges   is  a  prelude  to  great 


284  '^A  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

trials_,  as  if  God  intended  by  the  one  to  prepare 
his  people  for  the  other.  For  example,  the  three 
disciples  who  were  honoured  to  bear  Christ 
company  on  the  mount  of  transfiguration_,  were 
the  very  three  He  chose  to  be  the  painful  wit- 
nesses of  His  humiliation  in  the  garden.  Again, 
the  Apostle  Paul  is  called  up  into  the  third 
heavens,  to  hear  and  see  things  of  unutterable 
glory;  but  he  leaves  these  and  the  company  of 
aneels  to  be  buffeted  by  a  messenger  of  Satan — 
a  warning  to  God^s  saints  to  carry  their  honours 
meekly,  and  look  out  for  storms  on  the  back  of 
sunshine.  So  was  it  with  Israel  in  that  valley, 
where,  from  a  rock  cleft  by  the  rod  of  Moses,  a 
river  flowed  with  life  in  its  welcome  streams. 
Seated  on  its  banks,  as  the  people  recalled  the 
misery  of  yesterday, — the  whole  camp  in  mutiny, 
and  mothers  fiercely  pressing  on  Moses  with 
dying  infants  in  their  arms,  and  this  cry  on  their 
lips,  '  Water,  water^  give  us  water  ! ' — they  were 
probably  singing.  The  Lord  hath  done  great 
things  for  us,   whereof  we  are  glad  !      At   that 


MADE  HOLY.  285 


moment  a  storm  unexpectedly  bursts  on  their 
heads.  The  clash  of  weapons  and  shouts  of  war 
break  on  the  sweet,  peaceful  scene.  Thewhole  camp 
resounds  now  with  the  crv,  'To  arms!  to  arms!-* 
and  seizing  their  weapons,  with  Joshua  at  their 
head,  the  braves  of  Israel  sally  forth  to  meet  the 
sons  of  Amalek,  who,  approaching  the  host  by 
stealth,  have  fallen  on  it  like  a  roaring  whirlwind. 
Meanwhile  Moses — not  that  he  was  afraid,  or  a 
man  either  to  fear  or  flee — betakes  himself  to  the 
top  of  a  neighbouring  hill.  He  had  other  and 
better  work  to  do  than  fight.  Joshua  fights 
below ;  and  he  stands  above,  holding  aloft  the 
rod  that  had  erst  woke  the  thunders  of  cloudless 
skies ;  turned  rivers  into  blood ;  and,  breaking 
the  power  of  Egypt  like  a  potter^s  sherd,  cleft 
both  sea  and  rock  asunder.  Symbol  of  praver,  it 
appeals  to  heaven  for  help,  and  teaches  the  people 
to  look  there  for  victory.  And  now,  that  rod, 
and  the  arms  which  sustain  it,  appear  to  govern 
the  varying  fortunes  of  the  battle.  As  it  stands 
erect,  or  falls  through   the  weariness  of  Moses' 


286  SAV/A'G  KNOWLEDGE. 

arms^  so  rise  or  fall  the  scales  of  victory.  And 
so,  from  morning  to  noon,  the  tide  of  battle 
swaying  from  side  to  side,  when  Moses^  arms  are 
up  Israel  prevails;  when  they  sink,  fortune 
changes  sides,  and  Amalek  prevails.  The  battle 
was  fought  by  Joshua,  but  won  by  Moses.  Set- 
ting him  on  a  stone,  Aaron  and  Hur,  like  people 
engaged  in  united  prayer,  join  their  efforts  to 
sustain  his  arms.  That  done,  Israel  wins  every 
foot  of  ground ;  the  warriors  of  Amalek  fall  at 
every-  blow ;  the  fight  becomes  a  retreat ;  the 
retreat  a  rout;  till,  in  the  light  of  the  setting  sun, 
Moses  descends  the  mountain  to  build  an  altar  to 
the  Lord,  and  in  commemoration  of  a  victory 
won,  I  may  say,  by  prayer,  call  it  Jehovah  Nissi, 
^  The  Lord  my  banner.^ 

On  the  same  pivot  turns  our  success  in  the 
work  of  sanctification,  so  far  as  concerns  our 
life-long  conflict  with  temptation  ;  the  good  fight 
we  have  to  wage  with  that  trinity  of  enemies — ■ 
the  World,  the  Devil,  and  the  Flesh.  Since 
prayer  supplies  the  strength  and  calls  down  the 


MADE  HOLY.  287 


blessing,  therefore  everything  turns  on  it ;  there- 
fore the  Apostle  speaks  of  ^  praying  always ; ' 
therefore  he  urges  his  converts  to  ^  pray  without 
ceasing/  And  as  in  him  whose  case,  defying  the 
utmost  efforts  of  Christ-'s  disciples,  required  the 
presence  and  power  of  their  Master,  there  are 
devils  in  every  man  who  are  not  to  be  cast  out 
but  by  prayer — earnest  and  persevering  prayer. 
By  way  of  illustration  let  us  look  at  two  cases — 
the  first  teaching  us  what  triumphs  are  to  be  won 
by  prayer ;  the  second,  what  shameful  defeats 
shall  follow  and  punish  the  neglect  of  it. 

The  king  of  Babylon  has  issued  his  impious 
decree;  and  this  man  clothed  with  a  little  brief 
authority  has  forbidden  all  men  for  thirty  days, 
and  under  penalty  of  being  cast  into  a  den  of 
lions,  to  pray  to  any,  be  it  God  or  man,  but  to 
himself.  At  no  time  is  prayer  more  needed  than 
when  it  is  forbidden — -just  as  we  have  never  more 
need  to  pray  than  when  we  are  least  inclined  to 
do  so ;  when  hearts  are  cold  and  faith  is  weak. 
Bad  times  require  heroes — brave,  as  well  as  good 


288  SA  VING  KNO W LEDGE. 

men ;  nor  should  His  people  ever  stand  up  more 
boldly  and  resolutely  for  the  cause  of  God  than 
when  they  are  likely  in  a  worldly  sense  to  lose 
rather  than  gain  by  doing  so.  So  Daniel  judged. 
He  had  never  been  ashamed  to  pray;  and  now, 
with  that  decree  hanging  like  a  naked  sword  over 
his  head,  he  is  not  afraid  to  pray.  It  was  no 
time  for  such  a  man  as  he  to  seek  his  closet  and 
shut  the  door.  The  time  was  one  requiring 
faithful  men  to  openly  hold  up  a  banner  for  the 
truth.  So,  shaking  out  its  folds  in  the  face  of 
king  and  princes,  friend  and  foe,  death  and  the 
devil,  Daniel  bravely  displayed  it — throwing  his 
window  wide  open  that  all  might  see  him  on  his 
knees.  Paying  an  involuntary  tribute  to  his 
constancy  and  courage,  his  enemies  watch  him ; 
he  is  seized  ;  hurried  from  the  throne  of  God  to 
that  of  a  mortal  man,  and  from  thence  to  the  den 
of  lions.  Hungry  and  savage,  they  leap  with  a 
roar  on  their  prey,  and  fight,  growling,  over  his 
mangled  remains  ?  No.  Prayer  shuts  the  lions' 
mouths;    gentle  as  lambs,  they  gambol   around 


MADE  HOLY.  289 


him.  or  lie  crouched   in  sleep  at  his  feet.     Not 

Amalek_,  but  Israel  prevails.     There  was   a  man 

in  Scotland  once  so  in  love  with  prayer  that  he 

v^as  wont  to  retire  to  his  old  church  in  the  town 

of  Ayr^  and  spend  whole  nights  upon  his  knees, 

till,  it  was  said,  they  grew  hard'  as  the  stones  he 

knelt   on.      But  what   made  the    knees    callous 

softened  and  sanctified  the  heart;  inspiring  it  at 

the  same  time  with  heroic  courage.     Fit  mate  of 

her,  John  Knox's  daughter,  who,  on  King  James 

offering  to  set  her  husband  free  if  he  would  own 

the  king's    supremacy  within    Christ's    Church, 

replied,  as  she  held  out  her  apron,  ^  I  would  rather 

kep  his  head  there,  Welsh  rose  by  prayer  above 

all  fear  of  death.     A  prisoner  in  the  Bass  Rock, 

where  he  mingled  his  psalms  with  the  boom  of 

the  breakers  that  burst  on  his  dungeon  walls,  that 

man  feared  only  lest  he  should  not  be  deemed 

worthy,  like  others,  to  seal  his  testimony  with  his 

blood,  and  win  a  martyr's  crown. 

Now  look  at  another  and  opposite  case.     The 

supper  is  over;    and,  pledged   in   the-  wine-cup 
19 


290  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

rather  to  die  with  Christ  than  deny  Him,  the 
disciples  go  thence  with  their  Lord  and  Master. 
On  entering  the  garden  Jesus — entering  now 
into  the  gloomy  shadow  of  the  cross — leaves 
Peter,  James,  and  John,  with  instructions  to  pray.. 
He  returns  after  a  little,  but  it  is  to  find  the  hands 
of  Moses  down — the  disciples  are  asleep.  Awaken- 
ing them,  he  repeats  His  injunction,  but  with  no 
more  success;  and  on  a  third  trial,  returns  to 
find  them,  not  praying,  but  sleeping.  They  shall 
sleep  no  more.  The  tramp  of  armed  men  breaks 
on  the  silent  night,  and  torches  flash  on  armour 
and  flicker  through  the  branches  of  the  trees. 
They  are  taken  by  surprise — The  Philistines  are 
on  thee,  Samson  1  and  to  them  more,  in  a  sense, 
than  to  their  Master,  it  ^  is  the  hour  and  povv^er  of 
darkness.'  Jesus  triumphed  over  death,  and  sin, 
and  hell,  entering  on  the  conflict  with  prayer. 
But  they  entered  the  battle  prayerless;  and  so, 
after  a  brief  display,  a  mere  flash  of  courage,  they 
took  to  flight.  And  how  does  Simon,  the  brave 
and  self-confident  disciple  who  had  declared  that 


MADE  HOLY.  291 


though  Christ's  own  mother^  and  the  Marys_,  and 
all  others^  should  forsake  Him_,  he  never  would, 
choosing  death  rather  than  desertion — how  does 
he  meet  this  trial  ?  No  better,  but  rather  worse 
than  his  fellows.  We  have  seen  a  brave  sight — 
Daniel  stand  unmoved  alike  before  the  wrath  of 
kings  and  the  roar  of  lions;  alas!  here — Hiow 
are  the  mighty  fallen  1  the  weapons  of  w^ar,  how 
are  they  perished  !  Tell  it  not  in  Gath,  publish 
it  not  in  the  streets  of  Askelon  !  '  Pete-r  quails 
before  a  woman's  eye ;  and  turning  his  back  on 
that  loving  Master  to  whom  he  had  sworn 
dauntless  and  deathless  allegiance,  he  now — oh, 
most  cruel  and  wicked  lie ! — says,  ay  swears,  ^  I 
know  not  the  man  !  '  Daniel  prays,  and  grace 
prevails;  Peter  sleeps,  and  sin  prevails.  But  who 
may  not,  shall  not,  do  the  like  if  prayer  be 
neglected  ?  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth, 
take  heed  lest  he  fall.  Who  would  mortify  the 
flesh,  cast  out  the  devil,  burst  the  bonds  of  sin, 
walk  in  the  glorious  liberty  of  sons  of  God,  and, 
denying  themselves  to  ungodliness  and  all  worldly 


292  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

lusts,  at  length  perfect  holiness  in  the  fear  of  God, 
must  seek  their  strength,  their  ^  great  strength/ 
in  the  use  of  prayer.  Prayer  is  to  the  Christian 
what  his  hair  was  to  Samson ;  shorn  of  it,  he  is 
feeble  as  other  men. 

To  be  sanctified,  therefore,  to  have  our  cor- 
ruptions subdued,  to  reach  greater  heights  in 
grace,  to  grow  in  the  love  and  the  likeness  of 
Jesus  Christ,  to  be  mellowing  and  ripening  for 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  let  us  pray  much ;  pray 
often;  pray,  in  a  sense,  ^without  ceasing.^  That 
door  is  always  open,  and  is  open  to  all.  We 
cannot  go  there  too  often,  nor  ask  too  much. 
^  He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  delivered 
him  up  for  us  all,  shall  He  not  with  him  also 
freely  give  us  all  things  ?  ^ 

2.  Attention  to  the  state  of  our  hearts. 

I  know  an  ancient  fortress  which  one  brave 
man  could  have  held  against  a  host.  Perched  on 
the  summit  of  a  lofty  rock,  around  which  the  sea 
goes  foaming,  and  parted  from  the  mainland  by  a 
dizzy  chasm,  over  which  a  narrow  arch,  hanging 


MADE  HOLY.  293 


like  a  thread  in  mid-air^  is  thrown^  that  old  castle 
stood  in  other  days  impregnable.  There  was  but 
one  way  of  approach^  and  that  such  as  one  man 
could  hold  against  a  thousand.  As  might  be 
inferred  from  these  words  of  Scripture_,  Keep  thy 
heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are  the 
issues  of  life,  it  is  otherwise  with  us.  With 
appetites  and  passions,  each  of  which  may  be 
made  an  instrument  of  sin,  our  hearts  lie  open 
on  many  sides  to  attack.  Take,  for  example, 
the  most  innocent  of  these  appetites,  that  of  hun- 
ger— *"  Give  me  neither  poverty  nor  riches,'  says 
the  wise  man,  praying  as  much  against  the  first 
as  the  second ;  because,  though  happily  we 
know  nothing  of  it,  it  is  difficult  for  a  hungry 
to  be  an  honest  man.  The  empty  sack,  as  the 
proverb  says,  cannot  stand  upright;  and  he 
tempts  the  poor  through  this  appetite  who  used 
it  to  tempt  our  Lord  Himself — saying  to  Jesus 
when  He  was  an  hungred.  If  thou  be  the  Son 
of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made 
bread.    In  this,  as  in  other  ways,  Satan  tried  with 


294  'S:A  VING  KNO  W ledge. 

his  fiery  darts  every  joint  of  our  Champion^s 
armour;  and  only  failed  because_,  as  Jesus  Him- 
self said,  The  prince  of  this  world  cometh_,  and 
hath  nothing  in  me !  We  cannot  say  so.  Like 
traitors  lurking  within  a  beleaguered  city,  our 
natural  corruptions  are  ready  to  open  the  gates 
and  betray  us  to  the  enemy.  Hence  he  who 
would  keep  his  heart  from  evil,  keep  it  pure 
and  holy,  must  plant  a  sentinel  at  every  avenue 
by  which  sin  may  find  access  there — guarding 
against  none  more  than  the  little  sins,  as  they  are 
called,  that  are  like  the  urchins  who  enter  by 
the  window  and  open  the  door  for  bigger  thieves. 
The  man  of  God  has  his  eyes  to  keep,  and  so  Job 
said,  I  have  made  a  covenant  with  mine  eyes 
— his  tongue,  and  hence  the  exhortation,  Keep 
thy  tongue  from  evil,  and  thy  lips  from  speaking 
guile — his  ears,  and  hence  the  warning.  Cease, 
my  son,  to  hear  the  instruction  that  causeth  to 
err — his  feet,  and  hence  David  says,  I  have 
refrained  my  feet  from  every  evil  way,  that  I 
might  keep  thy  word.      And    since  there  is  no 


MADE  HOLY.  295 


gate  of  the  five  senses  by  which  the  enemy  may 
not^  unless  the  Spirit  lift  up  a  standard  against 
him,  come  in  hke  a  flood,  we  have  need  to  guard 
every  port,  and  write  over  every  portal,  ^  Here 
there  entereth  nothing  to  hurt  or  to  defile/ 

The  work  of  grace  is  carried  on  within  the 
heart.  It  is  therefore  the  state  of  our  affections 
more  than  our  outward  conduct  that  should 
occupy  our  chief  attention  and  engage  our  most 
earnest  prayers.  Let  me  illustrate  and  enforce 
this  by  an  analogy.  The  burning  thirst,  the 
flushed  cheek,  the  bounding  pulse,  the  restless 
nights  of  fever,  are  but  the  symptoms  of  disease. 
That  thirst  physicians  may  allay  by  cooling 
draughts;  and  opiates  may  dull  the  sense  of 
pain,  and  shed  sleep  and  sweet  oblivion  on  the 
eyes  of  the  weary  sufferer.  The  symptoms  are 
alleviated,  but  the  disease  is  not  arrested — the  evil 
is  but  masked,  not  mastered.  And  that  is  all 
which  is  achieved  in  the  reformation  which  some- 
times passes  for  regeneration  ;  in  that  outward  im- 
provement of  habits  and  decorum  of  life,  which 


296  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

will  never  supply  the  place  of  sanctification  in  the 
judgment  of  a  holy,  heart-searching  God.  Man 
looketh  on  the  outward  appearance,  but  God 
looketh  on  the  heart.  I  once  heard  physicians  say, 
as  they  stood  baffled  by  the  bed-side  of  one  fast 
posting  on  to  death.  We  can  do  nothing  now 
but  combat  the  symptoms.  Ominous  and  fatal 
words  !  Divine  grace,  thanks  be  to  God,  does 
more.  Let  it  reach  the  heart,  and  those  works  of 
the  flesh,  which  are  the  outward  symptoms  of 
indwelling  sin,  will  ere  long  pass  away,  like  a 
plant  which,  cut  at  the  root,  droops,  and  withers, 
and  dies.  It  is  in  the  heart  the  change  is 
wrought  for  salvation;  and  there,  as  a  building 
rises  from  its  foundations,  the  work  of  sanctifi- 
cation is  carried  onwards  and  upwards  to  per- 
fection. Cleanse  this  fountain,  and  purity  will 
flow  in  all  its  streams.  Let  our  heart  be  turn- 
ed heavenward,  and  our  members  and  affections, 
our  powers,  and  time,  and  influence,  will  all  fol- 
low and  obey  its  movements — as  from  stem  to 
stern,  from  her  keel  that  ploughs  the  wave  to  the 


MADE  HOLY.  297 


masts  that  rake  the  sky_,  a  ship  obeys  the  hand 
of  the  steersman  and  movements  of  the  hehn. 
Who_,  therefore,  would  grow  in  grace,  would  die 
daily  to  sin,  would  live  daily  to  righteousness ; 
while  they  strive  to  keep  their  hands  from  doing, 
and  their  ears  from  hearing,  and  their  lips 
from  speaking  evil,  let  them  strive  above  all 
things  to  keep  their  hearts  with  all  diligence, 
since  out  of  them  are  the  issues  of  life. 

3.  Living  separate  from  an  ungodly  world. 

With  all  the  world  in  His  choice,  God  placed 
His  ancient  people  in  a  very  remarkable  situation. 
On  the  north  they  were  walled  in  by  the  snowy 
ranges  of  Lebanon  ;  a  barren  desert  formed  their 
eastern  boundary  ;  far  to  the  south  stretched  a 
sterile  region,  called  the  howling  wilderness  ;  while 
the  sea — not  then,  as  now,  the  highway  of  nations, 
facilitating  rather  than  impeding  intercourse — lay 
on  their  west,  breaking  on  a  shore  that  had  few 
harbours  and  no  navigable  rivers  to  invite  the 
steps  of  commerce.  Such  a  position  rendered 
frequent  and  familiar  intercourse  on    their    part 


298  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

with  heathen  nations  difficult,  if  not  impossible. 
Other  circumstances  also  tended  to  isolate  the 
Israelites.  The  words  of  their  law  read  every 
Sabbath,  and  the  blood  of  the  passover  sprinkled 
every  year  on  their  doors,  kept  alive  the  memory 
of  old  wrongs — reminding  the  Hebrews  of  what 
their  fathers  had  once  suffered  in  the  land  of 
Egypt.  This  was  calculated  to  alienate  them 
from  the  Egyptians,  their  neighbours  on  the 
south  and  west ;  and  the  Egyptians,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  not  likely  to  regard  the  Israelites 
with  a  friendly  eye,  seeing  how,  in  the  oxen  and 
heifers  of  their  sacrifices,  they  offered  up  the  very 
gods  of  Egypt  on  the  altars  of  the  God  of 
Israel.  Their  other  neighbours  were  the  Philis- 
tines and  Edomites.  The  first,  the  surviving 
remnant  of  nations  whose  lands  Israel  had 
seized,  had  old  defeats  and  the  blood  of  their 
countrymen  to  avenge ;  while  the  second,  the 
children  of  Esau,  were  ready  when  ever  oppor- 
tunity offered,  to  renew  their  father's  quarrel  with 
Jacob,  and    fall    on    Jerusalem  with  the  sword. 


MADE  HOLY.  299 


and  cries  of  Raze  it^  raze  it  to  the  ground  !  Thus, 
besides  their  geographical  position,  the  relations 
of  God's  people  to  the  nations  around  them  were 
singularly  well  calculated  to  keep  them  a  separate 
and  make  them  in  a  sense  a  holy  people ;  to 
expose  them  to  the  enmity  rather  than  win  for 
them  the  friendship  of  the  world — a  position 
which  our  Lord  pronounces,  and  Christians  find 
in  their  experience  to  be,  the  safest  and  there- 
fore the  happiest  of  the  two.  ^  When  men  per- 
secute you  and  hate  you,'  said  our  Lord,  ^  and 
say  all  manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely,  rejoice, 
and  be  exceeding  glad,  for  great  is  your  reward  in 
heaven.-' 

England^s  great  dramatist  speaks  of  finding 
'  sermons  in  stones,  tongues  in  trees,  and  books 
in  the  running  brooks/ — and  may  we  not  find 
a  great  truth  in  the  very  position  in  which  God 
placed  his  chosen  people  ?  It  certainly  teaches  us 
that  to  be  holy,  or  sanctified,  we  must  be  a  separate 
people — living  in  the  world,  but  not  of  it — as 
oil,  that  may  be  mixed  but  cannot  be  combined 


300  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

with  water.  Nor  was  this  the  only  way  God 
took  to  teach  His  people,  and  through  them  us, 
this  lesson.  In  our  looms,  for  example,  nothing 
is  more  common  than  to  work  up  into  the  same 
web  materials  of  different  textures — wool  from  the 
snowy  flock,  with  flax  from  our  own,  or  cotton 
from  foreign  fields ;  nor  is  it  uncommon  for  our 
farmers  to  sow  different  kinds  of  seeds  in  the  same 
field ;  and  occasionally  in  our  country,  and  very 
often  abroad,  we  see  different  kinds  of  animals 
yoked  to  the  same  plough  or  cart.  Very  harmless 
customs,  yet  strictly  forbidden  to  the  Jews  by 
these  laws  of  Moses — Thou  shalt  not  sow  thy 
field  with  mixed  seeds,  neither  shall  a  garment 
mingled  of  linen  and  wool  come  upon  thee ; 
thou  shalt  not  plough  with  an  ox  and  an  ass 
together.  And  what  spiritual  lesson  were  these 
regulations  intended  to  teach,  but  this,  that  it  is 
not  safe  for  those  who  would  live  godly  to  asso- 
ciate with  the  ungodly;  that,  if  we  would  not  be 
partakers  of  other  men's  sins,  we  must  live,  as 
far   as   lies    in  us,   separate   from    their    society  ? 


MADE  HOLY.  301 


*  Come  out  from  among  them^  and  be  ye  separate^ 

and  touch  no  unclean  thing  :  and  I  will  receive 

you,  and    will    be    a    Father  unto  you,    and    ye 

shall  be  my  sons  and  daughters,  saith  the  Lord 

Almighty/ 

We  have  seen  an  adroit  debater  seek   by  the 

use  of  ridicule  to   throw   contempt  on  what  he 

could  not  refute  :  and  this  has  he  who  is  fertile  in 

wiles  done  with  the  duty  that  lies  on  Christians  to 

live  separate  from  an  ungodly  world.      Satan  has 

sought  to  make  it  ridiculous.     In  the  hermits  of 

old    times,   in   the  convents  and   monasteries  of 

Popery,  where  roam,  in  the  words  of  Milton, 

'  Embryos  and  idiots,  eremites  and  friars, 
White,  black,  and  gray,  with  all  their  trumpery  ; ' 

and  in  the  seclusive,  not  to  say  sour  and  exclusive, 
habits  of  some  good  but  narrow-minded  Pro- 
tfestants,  he  offers  us  a  caricature  of  this  duty 
and  God^s  truth. 

It  would  neither  promote  our  sanctification, 
nor  the  glory  of  God,  nor  the  good  of  others,  to 
withdraw  altogether  from  worldly   society.     To 


302 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


'  depart  from  evil '  is  but  a  part  of  our  duty  ;  we 
are  also  to  '  do  good/  '  Pure  religion  and  unde- 
filed'  walks  not  in  solitude;  her  hands  are  em- 
ployed providing  the  orphans  bread ;  her  feet 
are  found  at  the  widow^s  door;  her  steps  are 
even  sometimes  turned  to  haunts  of  vice ;  her 
visits  are  paid  not  so  much  to  the  great  and 
noble  as  to  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their 
affliction  ;  and  following  our  Lord^  nor  shrinking 
from  the  touch  of  guilt,  she  goes  forth  to  seek  and 
save  the  lost.  The  proper  station  for  a  life-boat 
is  not  the  quiet  lagoon  or  land-locked  bay,  but 
the  shores  of  a  stormy  coast.  But  though  true 
religion  seeks  to  strengthen  her  graces  by  exercise, 
and  thus  effectually  promote  the  work  of  sanctifi- 
cation,  that  is  a  totally  different  thing,  both  in  its 
intention  and  results,  from  voluntary  association 
with  the  ungodly;  from  courting  the  company 
and  cultivating  the  friendship  of  such  as  are  not 
the  friends  but  the  enemies  of  God.  It  is  not 
safe,  as  Lot  found  to  his  cost,  to  live  in  Sodom. 
Who  can  touch  pitch,  and  not  be  defiled  ?    Sailors 


MADE  HOLY.  303 

give  a  wide  berth  to  shoals  and  whirlpools_,  and 
we  shall  find  it  safest  and  most  for  our  sanctifi- 
cation  to  keep  away  from  seductive  influences — 
not  so  much  as  venturing  into  the  stream  which 
has  carried  off  their  feet  many  who  fancied 
they  could  stem  its  torrent.  How  often  have 
God^s  people  learned  to  their  sorrow  that  worldly 
society — cooling  if  not  quenching  their  love^  blunt- 
ing the  fine  edge  of  a  renewed  conscience,  and 
checking  their  growth  in  grace — has  done  them 
far  more  ill  than  they  ever  did  it  good.  Who 
walks,  as  we  do,  in  slippery  places  is  in  great 
danger  of  backsliding;  who  throws  himself  into  a 
crowd  is  more  likely  to  be  borne  along  with  the 
current  than  to  stop  it;  and  who  even  bravely 
and  nobly  attempts  to  save  the  drowning  must  be 
on  his  guard  lest,  locked  in  their  deadly  embrace, 
he  sinks  to  perish  along  with  them. 

It  is  impossible  to  altogether  escape  the  tempt- 
ations which  the  world  presents;  in  that  case,  a 
man,  as  Paul  says,  must  needs  go  out  of  the  world. 
This  has  been    tried.     But    in  vain    have   pious 


304  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

dreamers  fled  the  haunts  of  men,  expecting  in  the 
depths  of  untrodden  forests,  in  caves  and  lonely 
deserts,  to  enjoy  uninterrupted  communion  with 
God.  Alas,  they  carried  with  them  in  the  cor- 
ruption of  their  own  hearts  what  often  proved  the 
worst  of  company ;  nor  there  did  they  escape  him 
who  pursued  our  Lord  Himself  to  the  solitudes  of 
the  desert.  But  suppose  that  hermit^s  cell  or 
cloistered  convents  offered  a  perfect  protection 
from  evil  in  every  shape  and  form,  it  were  not  the 
duty  of  God^s  people  to  withdraw  from  the  world. 
It  has  need,  much  need  of  them.  ^  Unless  these 
abide  in  the  ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved .^  Saints 
are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  if  the  salt  be  with- 
drawn, how  is  corruption  to  be  checked  ?  Saints 
are  the  lights  of  the  world;  but  lights  are  not 
kindled  in  empty  halls  and  unpeopled  solitudes. 
They  burn  where  houses  stand  thick  and  crowds 
throng  the  busy  streets  :  or  shine  out  at  the  har- 
bour mouth  through  the  night  and  tempest — 
guiding  lights  by  whose  welcome  gleams  the 
sailor,  leaving  storms  behind,  steers  his  bark  into 


MADE  HOL  V.  305 


the  desired  haven.  Let  such  be  the  aim  of  God^s 
people.  Living  for  their  sanctification^  separate 
in  a  sense  from  the  world_,  and  moving,  Hke  the 
stars  above  it_,  in  a  loftier  sphere,  let  them  shine 
with  the  lustre  of  holy  and  useful  lives,  that  others, 
seeing  their  good  works,  may  glorify  their  Father 
which  is  in  heaven. 

4.  The  hope  of  glory. 

Hope  is  a  medicine  on  which  physicians  place 
great  dependence  ;  nor  is  there  almost  any  symp- 
tom they  are  more  prompt  and  anxious  to  combat 
than  the  depression  of  mind  which,  prostrating 
the  vital  powers,  goes  to  produce  the  very  evil 
that  it  dreads.  Imparting  courage,  and  also 
strength,  firmness  to  the  troops  who  receive,  and 
energy  to  those  that  make  the  charge,  hope  has 
braved  the  face  of  death,  and  won  proud  victories 
on  many  a  battle-field.  In  almost  every  position 
of  life  hope  is  the  prelude  of  success;  as  hopeless, 
on  the  other  hand,  may  be  justly  regarded  as 
equivalent  to  helpless.  No  hope,  no  eifort — as 
observed  in  the  demeanour  of  an  unhappy  Indian 


3o6  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

who,  caught  in  the  current,  perished  in  the  Cata- 
ract of  Niagara.  Wearied  with  the  chase  and 
asleep,  or  forgetful  of  his  peril,  he  had  allowed  his 
canoe  to  drift  into  the  rapids,  nor  awoke  to  his 
danger  till  the  current  was  sweeping  it  along  with 
an  arrow's  speed.  Roused  at  length  by  the  shouts 
of  terrified  spectators,  he  sprang  to  his  feet,  and, 
looking  around  him,  took  in  all  the  danger  at  a 
glance.  But  he  seized  no  oar,  nor  raised  a  cry, 
nor  made  an  effort  to  reach  the  bank.  With  the 
courage  of  his  race,  and  the  calmness  of  despair, 
the  savage  bows  to  his  fate;  resumes  his  seat; 
and,  folding  his  arms,  awaits  the  moment,  when, 
borne  over  the  fall,  he  is  buried  in  its  boiling  gulf. 
Hope  had  fled. 

The  Word  of  God  furnishes  two  cases 
strikingly  illustrative  of  the  influence  of  hope  on 
the  one  hand,  and  of  hopelessness  on  the  other. 
T  refer  to  those  of  Saul  and  David,  when  each 
went  forth  to  meet  the  Philistine.  It  needed  no 
familiar  spirit,  nor  prophet  from  his  grave,  nor 
accursed  witch  that  night  Saul  repaired  to  her 


MADE  HOLY.  507 


hut  in  Endor^  to  foretell  the  disasters  of  the 
coming  day.  Prostrate  at  her  feet,  abandoned  of 
God  and  of  hope_,  rejecting  both  food  and  com- 
fort, Saul  was  already  conquered.  In  his  crushed 
hopes  and  heart  coming  e\^ents  cast  their  shadow 
before.  Paralyzed  by  despair,  he  was  incapable 
of  such  efforts,  either  of  body  or  mind,  as  the 
time  and  his  danger  required.  Ready  to  fall 
before  the  Philistines  as  a  noble  oak  whose  roots 
have  been  severed  by  the  axe  before  the  first  blast 
of  the  rising  storm,  he  had  not  a  chance  in  the 
coming  battle. 

What  a  contrast  to  this  scene  the  day  that 
saw  David,  in  the  sight  of  two  armies  that  hung 
on  opposing  hills,  hastening  with  eager  eye,  and 
flying  locks,  and  elastic  foot  to  meet  the  giant ! 
Hope  was  in  his  bounding  step  ;  and  sounds  to 
my  ear  like  the  blare  of  a  battle  trumpet  in  his 
reply  to  Goliath,  'Thou  comest  to  me  wdth  a 
sword,  with  a  spear,  and  with  a  shield;  but  I 
come  to  thee  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 
the  God  of  the  armies  of  Israel,  whom  thou  hast 


3o8  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

defied ;  this  day  the  Lord  will  deliver  thee  into 
mine  hand_,  and  I  will  smite  thee  and  take  thine 
head  from  thee;  and  I  will  give  the  carcase  of 
the  host  of  the  Philistines  unto  the  fowls  of  the 
air^  and  to  the  wild  beasts  of  the  earth_,  that  all 
the  earth  may  know  that  there  is  a  God  in  Israel : 
the  battle  is  the  Lord's,  and  He  will  give  you 
into  our  hands/  Brave  speech  1  this  was  the 
voice  of  hope^  of  heaven-born  hope.  Sustaining 
David^s  hearty  gi^Ji^g  sight  to  his  eyes  and  im- 
parting strength  to  his  arm,  as^  whirling  the  sling 
around  his  head,  he  launched  the  messenger  of 
death  right  to  the  mark,  that  hope  was  the  omen,, 
and  under  God  the  means  of  victory. 

And  so  it  is  in  the  Christian's  conflict  with 
sin )  and  indeed  in  all  the  work  of  sanctifi cation. 
Hence,  not  for  our  peace  only,  but  for  our  purity 
also,  the  importance  of  a  ^  lively  hope,'  of  making 
our  calling  and  election  sure.  In  spiritual  as  in 
earthly  things,  there  is  great  strength  in  hope; 
and,  therefore,  God's  people  are  carefully  to 
cultivate  that  grace.     Carefully  avoid  everything 


MADE  HOLY.  309 


that  could  cast  a  doubt  on  your  salvation ;  throw 
you  into  a  state  of  spiritual  darkness ;  and  bring 
you_,  as  David  seemed  to  have  been  brought  by 
his  great  sin_,  to  the  very  borders  of  despair.  A 
well-grounded  hope  that,  having  been  made  new 
creatures  in  Jesus  Christ,,  we  are  His — that  with 
our  names,  though  unknown  to  fame,  written  in 
the  Book  of  Life,  we  have  grace  in  possession  and 
heaven  in  prospect — that  after  a  few  more  brief 
years,  pure  as  the  angels  that  sing  before  the 
throne,  we  shall  be  brought  with  gladness  into 
the  palace  of  the  King,  to  be  like  Christ,  and 
with  Christ,  seeing  Him  eye  to  eye,  and  face  to 
face — such  hopes  are  powerful  springs  of  action. 
The  source  of  a  peace  that  passeth  understanding, 
nothing  could  be  better  calculated  to  wean  our 
affections  from  the  world,  and  deepen  our  abhor- 
rence of  sin,  and  inflame  our  desires  to  be  holy  as 
God  is  holy. 

IV.  Sanctification  is  a  progressive  work. 

A  connoisseur  in  painting,  so  soon  as  the 
dust  of  years  and  neglect  is  wiped  from  a  fine  old 


310  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

picture,,  can  tell  whose  hand  laid  these  colours  on 
the  canvas — the  works  of  each  of  the  great 
masters  having  a  character  of  their  own.  In 
like  manner  an  antiquarian,  though  history  is 
silent  on  the  subject,  and  no  date  stands  carved 
on  the  crumbling  ruin,  can  tell  when  this  tower 
was  built,  or  that  arch  was  sprung — the  archi- 
tecture of  every  age  being  marked  by  features 
peculiar  to  itself.  And  to  pass  from  small  things 
to  great,  so  distinguished  are  God's  works  by 
features  all  their  own — evidences  of  divine  good- 
ness, power,  and  wisdom — that  a  Bedoween,  when 
asked  how  he  knew  there  was  a  God  when  he 
had  never  seen  Him,  had  good  reason  to  look 
with  surprise  on  the  sceptic,  and  reply,  as  he 
pointed  to  a  footprint  in  the  sand,  ^How  do  I 
know  whether  it  was  a  man  or  camel  that  passed 
my  tent  last  night  ?  ^ 

Among  other  features  impressed  on  all  the 
works  of  God,  none  is  more  distinctly  marked 
than  their  progressive  character.  It  was  step  by 
step,  and  day  by  day,  not  all  of  a  sudden,  that 


MADE  HOLY.  311 

our  world  was  constructed_,  and  creation  finished 
— with  man,  his  Maker^s  image,  and  his  crowning 
work,  standing  on  the  summit  of  the  pyramid. 
The  Providence,  also,  that  sustains  and  governs 
the  world  is  no  less  distinctly  marked  by  progress. 
Babes  grow  into  men;  seedlings  into  trees;  the 
gray  dawn  into  the  rosy  morn ;  the  morn  into  the 
blaze  of  sunshine;  and  the  green  blades  that 
spring  from  dull  clods  into  the  golden  sheaves  of 
autumn.  Nothing  in  nature  starts  at  once  into 
maturity — neither  the  fish  of  the  sea,  nor  the  fowls 
of  the  air,  nor  the  flowers  of  the  field,  nor  the  trees 
of  the  forest.  Nor  is  man  himself,  in  respect  of 
either  soul  or  body,  exempt  from  this  imperial  law. 
Going  away  to  push  your  fortune  in  the  world,  you 
leave  an  infant  in  your  mother^s  arms,  and  return 
after  long  years  of  absence  to  hail  the  blue 
mountains  of  your  native  land  as  they  rise  above 
the  wave.  Hastening  homewards,  you  stand 
once  more  amid  the  dear  and  well-remembered 
scenes  of  other  days.  The  same  trees  wave  over 
the  houscj  the  same  stream  with  its  daisied  banks 


312  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

runs  murmuring  by  the  door ;  and,  though  time 
has  silvered  their  heads_,  and  written  wrinkles  on 
their  brows,  you  at  once  recognize  the  faces  and 
are  locked  in  the  arms  of  happy  and  beloved 
parents.  But  who  is  he  that  stands  there,  in 
strength  and  stature  a  mighty  man  ? — but  the 
infant  you  left  hanging  helpless  on  a  mother^s 
breast.  And  thus,  without  any  previous  know- 
ledge of  the  matter,  and  looking  only  at  God^s 
works  of  creation  and  providence,  we  could  pre- 
dicate that  sanctification,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
His  works,  would  also  be  one  of  progress — giving 
us  no  more  reason  to  expect  that  a  sinner  on  his 
conversion  would  suddenly  grow  up  into  a  perfect 
saint  than  a  seedling  into  a  perfect  tree,  or  the 
field  sown  to-day  be  to-morrow  flashing  with  the 
sickles  and  joyous  with  the  song  of  reapers. 
Grace  has  its  dawn  as  well  as  day;  grace  has  its 
green  blade,  and  afterwards  its  ripe  corn  in  the 
ear;  grace  has  its  babes  and  its  men  in  Christ. 
With  God^s  work  there,  as  with  all  His  works  '^in 
all  places  of  his  dominion/  progress  is  both  the 


MADE  HOLY.  313 


prelude  and  the  path  to  perfection.  Therefore 
we  are  exhorted  to  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ 
— to  lay  aside  every  weight  and  the  sin  that  doth 
more  easily  beset  us_,  and  run  with  patience  the 
race  set  before  us — to  run  so  that  we  may  obtain 
— to  go  on  to  perfection_,  saying  with  Paul,  What 
things  were  gain  to  me,  those  I  counted  loss  for 
Christ;  yea,  doubtless,  and  I  count  all  things  but 
loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
Jesus  my  Lord.  I  count  not  myself  to  have 
apprehended ;  but  this  one  thing  I  do^  forgetting 
those  things  which  are  behind,  and  reaching 
forth  unto  those  things  which  are  before,  I  press 
towards  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 

This  is  a  view  of  sanctification  well  calculated 
to  strengthen  feeble  knees  and  hold  up  arms  that 
are  ready  to  hang  down.  I  am  a  great  sinner — 
my  head  is  dark  and  my  heart  is  dead — my  feet 
are  ever  slipping — when  I  would  do  good,  evil  is 
present  with  me;  what  I  would  1   do   not,  and 


314  'S^A  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

what  I  would  not  that  I  do  !  has  been  the  com- 
plaint of  the  godly.  And  as  a  native  of  the  plain, 
who  climbs  some  Alpine  summit,  on  finding, 
when  he  has  reached  the  first  height,  that  another 
rises  before  him,  and  after  it  another,  and  still 
another,  each  towering  higher  into  the  sky,  is 
ready,  under  the  depressing  influences  of  disap- 
pointment and  fatigue,  to  throw  himself  on  the 
ground  and  abandon  the  task  in  despair,  so,  thus 
complaining  and  confessing,  God's  people  have 
been  ready  to  fall  into  despondency  and,  writing 
hard  things  against  themselves,  lose  the  blessed 
hope  of  being  ever  wholly  sanctified. 

But  why  should  you  be  cast  down,  or  your 
spirits  disquieted  within  you  ?  '^  It  is  good  that 
a  man  should  both  hope  and  quietly  wait  for  the 
salvation  of  the  Lord/  Descrying  the  day  in  the 
dawn,  the  man  in  the  stammering  babe,  and  in 
the  seedling  the  stately  tree  with  roots  rifted  in  the 
rock  and  giant  arms  thrown  out  defiant  of  the 
storm,  let  His  people  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  and  joy 
in  the  God  of  their  salvation.     It  is  not  possible 


MADE  HOLY.  315 


for  them  to  employ  language  humbler  than  that 
of  St  Paul_,  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 
He  reckoned  himself ''the  chief  of  sinners_,  and 
less  than  the  least  of  saints  ^ — that  he  had  not 
attained,  or  was  yet  perfect.  But  did  he  there- 
fore go  mourning  all  the  day  long,  wearing  a 
face  of  gloom  and  hanging  his  head  like  a  bul- 
rush ?  No.  He  went  out  to  work,  expecting  a 
blessing  on  his  labours;  he  went  down  to  battle 
confident  in  God,  and  therefore  confident  of 
victory.  They  cast  him  into  the  inner  prison, 
and  he  passed  the  night  singing  psalms  of  praise ; 
they  hunted  him  like  a  partridge  on  the  moun- 
tains, and  he  rejoiced  in  tribulation ;  they,  both 
the  heathen  and  his  own  countrymen,  sought  to 
overwhelm  him  with  persecutions,  and  amid 
perils  and  sufferings  many  he  rose,  like  the  ark, 
buoyant  on  the  top  of  the  flood ;  Death  shook 
his  grisly  hand  at  him,  and  he  defied  the  king  of 
terrors — this  the  source  of  his  joy  and  peace,  of 
his  unwearied  energy  in  work  and  dauntless 
intrepidity  in  danger,  the  confidence  that  He  who 


3 1 6  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

had  begun  a  good  work  in  him  would  carry  it  on  to 
the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  No  cloud  on  his  brow 
nor  in  his  sky^  I  am  persuaded^  he  exclaimed, 
that  neither  life,  nor  death,  nor  angels,  nor 
principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor 
things  to  come,  shall  be  able  to  separate  me  from 
the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 
This  confidence  is  '  the  inheritance  of  the 
saints^ — of  all  the  saints.  The  blood  of  Jesus 
has  lost  none  of  its  virtue,  nor  His  Spirit  any  of 
its  power;  the  fountain  of  grace  is  not  exhausted, 
nor  is  the  edge  of  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
either  rusted  by  age  or  blunted  by  use.  To-day, 
the  sun  in  heaven  shines  as  bright  as  when  his 
old  fires  first  began  to  burn  :  and  so  does  that 
better  Sun,  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  which 
sheds  healing  in  its  beams — to-day,  the  wind 
sweeps  field  and  forest  with  wings  as  strong  and 
free  as  when  first  it  stirred  in  gentle  breezes  or 
tossed  in  storms  the  palms  of  Eden :  and  now 
not  less  free  and  full  than  ever  that  Spirit  which 
is  as  the  wind  that  bloweth  where,  and  when. 


MADE  HOLY.  317 


and  how  it  listeth — to-day^  the  great  sea,  '  where 
go  the  ships/  after  receiving,  for  long  ages,  into 
its  capacious  bosom  the  mud  and  mire,  the  decay 
and  death  of  a  thousand  rivers,  is  as  pure  as  when 
its  billows  first  broke  their  snowy  heads  on  the 
shores  of  our  new-born  world :  and  so,  though 
ten  times  ten  thousand  and  thousands  of  thou- 
sands have  washed  away  their  guilt  in  the  blood 
of  Christ,  are  the  fountains  of  grace  and  salvation. 
For  deliverance  from  the  love  and  power,  as  well 
as  the  guilt,  of  sin,  we  are  ^  complete  in  Christ/ 
In  this  confidence,  though  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling, let  us  work  out  our  salvation  ;  God  working 
in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure. 
Seeking  the  aids  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  let  us  aim  at 
perfection.  Let  every  day  see  some  sin  crucified, 
some  battle  fought,  some  good  done,  some 
victory  won;  let  every  fall  be  followed  by  a  rise, 
and  every  step  gained  become,  not  a  resting-place, 
but  a  new  starting-point  for  further  and  higher 
progress ;  and  looking  over  the  gloomy  confines 
of  the  grave  to  the  glory  that  lies  beyond,  let  us 


SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 


meet  our  last  hour  and  last  enemy,  when  they 
come^  calm  '  in  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  a 
glorious  resurrection ' — this  our  confidence,  that 
He  who  hath  begun  a  good  work  in  us  will  carry 
it  on  to  the  day  of  the  L(^rd  Jesus;  and  will, 
w^hile  mourning  friends  receive  our  parting  sigh^ 
bring  forth  the  ^  headstone ' — all  the  angels  of 
heaven  and  all  the  saints  in  glory  shouting, 
^  Grace,  grace  unto  it !  ^ 


XII. 

THE  SACRAMENTS. 

^  I  ^HE  origin  of  the  word  ^  Sacrament^  is  pecu- 
liar. It  occurs  nowhere  in  the  Bible,  but, 
like  the  word  '  Trinity/  is  of  purely  ecclesiastical 
origin.  In  the  well-known  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  into  Latin,  commonly  called  the  ^  Vul- 
gate,' whenever  the  word  mijsterion,  or  mystery, 
occurs  in  the  original  Greek,  it  is  rendered  by 
the  Latin  sacramentum.  Sacramentum  means 
generally  a  thing  possessing  sacredness,  but  hidden 
or  concealed ;  and  more  specifically  the  oath 
which  Roman  soldiers  used  to  take  that  they 
would  be  faithful  to  their  country  and  obey  their 
general.  The  application  of  the  word  to  certain 
ordinances  of  the  Christian  religion,  arose  from 
the  idea  that  there  was  a  hidden  sacredness  about 


320  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

them.  There  was  in  them  a  mysterious  relation 
between  certain  outward  acts  and  the  most 
solemn  and  awful  truths  of  the  Christian  faith. 
This  notion  of  mystic  sacredness_,  while  not  des- 
titute of  a  certain  foundation  in  the  Word  of 
God,  has  been  enormously  exaggerated_,  under  the 
influence  of  certain  ecclesiastical  tendencies.  In 
fact,  the  mysterious  aspect  of  the  sacraments 
has  often  been  so  presented  as  to  do  incomparable 
damage.  Under  the  impression  of  an  insepar- 
able connection  between  certain  outward  acts, 
and  the  highest  blessings  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  men  have  been  encouraged  to  attach  to  the 
sacraments  by  themselves  an  importance  as 
disastrous  to  their  spiritual  welfare,  as  it  is  desti- 
tute of  foundation  in  the  Word  of  God.  And, 
as  often  happens,  this  extreme  has  been  followed 
by  a  corresponding  reaction.  From  the  enor- 
mously exaggerated  value  attached  by  some  to  the 
sacraments,  others  have  recoiled  to  the  opposite 
extreme.  In  their  view  the  sacraments,  so  called, 
are  of  little  value.      All  saving  blessings  depend 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  321 

on  faith  in  the  Word  of  God.  It  is  the  spiritual 
reception  of  divine  truth  that  alone  is  of  saving 
value.  The  sacraments,  according  to  this  view, 
are  little  more  than  acknowledgments  of  belief 
and  badges  of  profession ; — and  any  notion  of  a 
hidden  sacredness,  or  a  hidden  relation  in  them  to 
the  chief  blessings  of  salvation,  beyond  what  this 
view  implies,  is  a  mere  devout  imagination. 

It  is  between  these  extremes  that  we  conceive 
the  truth  to  lie.  With  the  supporters  of  the 
latter  view  we  hold,  and  hold  very  strongly,  that 
the  spiritual  reception  of  revealed  truth,  especially 
the  truth  regarding  Christ  and  His  salvation,  is 
the  only  link  between  the  sinner  and  the  Saviour, 
the  only  mode  of  receiving  into  our  possession 
the  blessings  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  it 
by  no  means  follows  from  this  that  the  sacraments 
are  of  little  use.  The  sacraments  may,  and  we 
believe  do,  render  essential  service  when  God's 
blessing  rests  on  them,  in  promoting  the  believ- 
ing reception  of  saving  truth,  in  enabling  us  to 
grasp  Christ  and  His  blessings,  to  receive  and  rest 


322  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

upon  Him  alone  for  salvation.  It  is  this  view  of 
the  sacraments,  as  essential  aids  to  faith,  that  finds 
most  favour  in  the  churches  of  the  Reformation. 
The  two  distinctive  views,  which  may  be  termed 
the  one  Popish,  the  other  Protestant,  are  first, 
that  a  certain  store  of  saving  grace  has  been  de- 
posited in  the  sacraments,  and  is,  by  the  very  act, 
communicated  to  the  recipient  of  them  when 
they  are  rightly  administered;  and  second,  that 
the  sacraments  are  simply  channels  of  commu- 
nion with  Christ,  means  of  promoting  the  Chris- 
tian graces, — especially  of  calling  into  exercise 
the  faith  that  appropriates  Christ  and  feeds  on 
Him;  and  that,  in  these  respects,  a  special  bless- 
ing rests  on  them  when  rightly  received.  The 
main  difference  between  the  two  systems  is,  that  ac- 
cording to  the  one,  there  is  a  store  of  grace  in  the 
sacraments,  according  to  the  other,  the  only  store 
of  grace  is  in  the  person  of  Christ.  By  the  one 
you  get  grace  when  you  receive  the  sacrament; 
bv  the  other  you  get  grace  only  when  by  faith 
you  feed   on  Christ.     This  last  position  is  emi- 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  323 

nently  characteristic  of  all  truly  Protestant 
Churches.  The  Protestant  doctrine  is,  that  the 
only  deposit  of  grace  is  in  the  living  Christ. 
The  soul  that  is  to  taste  of  saving  blessings  must 
in  every  case  be  in  personal  communion  v^ith 
Christ,  and  that  personal  communion  can  take 
place  only  in  the  exercise  of  faith.  No  part  of 
saving  grace  has  been  sent  away  from  Christ  to 
sacraments  or  any  other  ordinances.  '  It  hath 
pleased  the  Father  that  in  Him  should  all  fulness 
dwell.^  Sacraments  therefore  belong  to  the  same 
category  as  the  preaching  of  the  truth.  They 
serve  to  exhibit  Christ, — to  exhibit  Him  in  most 
solemn  and  precious  lights; — when  they  are  re- 
ceived in  faith,  the  blessing  of  God  rests  on 
them ;  they  then  seal  or  confirm  the  blessings 
which  they  exhibit,  and  they  convey  the  blessings 
which  they  seal.  It  is  not,  as  Vinet  remarks, 
that  the  word  becomes  a  rite,  but  the  rite  becomes 
a  word.  The  sacraments  are  symbols  and  seals 
of  saving  truth;  and  they  are  made  effectual  to 
salvation,  'not  from  any  virtue  in  them,  nor  in 


324  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

him  that  doth  administer  them ;  but  only  by  the 
blessing  of  Christy  and  the  working  of  His  Spirit 
in  them  that  by  faith  receive  them.' 

But  what  are  the  ordinances  to  which  the 
name  of  Sacraments  is  applied^  and  for  what 
reason  is  it  so  used  ?  In  the  Protestant  Church 
the  term  is  restricted  to  the  two  ordinances  of 
Baptism  and  the  Lord^s  Supper.  In  the  Church 
of  Rome  it  embraces  besides,  confirmation^,  pen- 
ance, extreme  unction,  ordination,  and  matri- 
mony. We  do  not  mean  to  enter  here  on  the 
controversy  with  Rome  on  this  point.  We  sim- 
ply remark  that  the  name  is  restricted  by  Pro- 
testants to  Baptism  and  the  Lord^s  Supper, 
because  these  two  ordinances  alone  are  held  to 
possess  the  features  that  entitle  them  to  the  name. 

I.  In  a  sacrament,  there  is  a  certain  outward 
act  or  ceremony,  which  is  a  sign,  picture,  or  re- 
presentation of  some  of  the  blessings  of  salvation. 

This  is  obviously  true  of  the  two  ordinances 
of  the  Old  Testament  which  are  commonly 
ranked  as  sacraments.  Circumcision  and  the  Pass- 


777^  SACRAMENTS.  325 

over^  as  well  as  of  those  of  the  New.  In  adminis- 
tering circumcision,  a  certain  act  or  ceremony 
was  performed,  which  act,  from  its  very  nature, 
was  a  representation  or  sign  of  the  truth,  that 
whatever  is  born  of  man  is  polluted,  and  needs 
as  it  were  to  be  cut  off — in  other  words,  that  the 
whole  nature  of  man  is  corrupt,  and  that  it  needs 
to  be  suppressed,  and  succeeded  by  a  holier. 
Circumcision,  in  its  very  nature,  was  thus  a  sign 
or  representation  of  the  mortifying  of  the  old 
man,  with  his  affections  and  lusts — putting  off 
the  old  man  and  putting  on  the  new.  And  hence, 
in  writing  to  the  Colossians  (ii.  ii)  the  apostle 
reminds  them  that  through  Christ  they  had  expe- 
rienced the  inward  reality  of  which  circumcision 
was  the  outward  representation — ^  in  whom  also 
ye  are  circumcised  with  the  circumcision  made 
without  hands,  viz.,  in  putting  off  the  body  of  the 
sins  of  the  flesh,  by  the  circumcision  of  Christ.^ 
The  Passover,  again,  was  an  evident  and  a  very 
significant  representation  of  salvation  through 
Jesus  Christ.     Both  in  itself  and  in  the  circum- 


326  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

stances  in  which  it  was  instituted,  it  was  fitted  to 
shadow  forth  the  way  of  salvation.  On  the  night 
of  its  institution,  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  passed 
over  the  houses  of  the  Israelites,  on  whose  door- 
posts the  blood  of  the  lamb  was  sprinkled,  and 
left  the  deadly  token  of  his  visit  on  the  person  of 
every  Egyptian  firstborn.  How  significant  was 
this  of  the  difference  between  a  state  of  salvation 
and  a  state  of  condemnation !  The  wail  of  dis- 
tress issuing  from  every  dwelling  of  Egypt,  the 
joyful  sense  of  deliverance  brightening  every 
Hebrew  countenance — what  expressive  symbols 
these  were  of  the  feelings  of  the  two  great  classes 
of  men  on  the  day  of  judgment !  In  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Passover,  the  manner  of  partaking 
was  not  less  expressive.  A  meal  was  furnished 
for  a  whole  household  from  a  slain  lamb,  roasted 
whole^  which  was  served  with  bitter  herbs  to  the 
members  of  the  family  in  a  standing  posture, 
with  their  shoes  on  their  feet,  and  their  staves  in 
their  hands; — shadowing  forth  how  Christ  our 
Passover  is  sacrificed  for  us;  how  His  flesh  and 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  327 

blood,  received  in  faith,  become  the  meat  and 
drink  of  the  soul ;  and  how  it  is  as  pilgrims  and 
strangers,  passing  from  a  house  of  bondage  to  a 
heavenly  home,  that  we  should  eat  this  feast,  and 
receive  this  salvation. 

When  we  turn  to  the  two  sacraments  of  the 
New  Testament — Baptism  and  the  Lord^s  Supper, 
we  find  that  they  too  very  obviously  furnish  re- 
presentations of  the  leading  blessings  of  salvation. 
Thus  Baptism,  bringing  the  person  baptized  into 
immediate  contact  with  water,  represents  the 
close  personal  connection  into  which  Christ  is 
brought  with  the  soul  of  the  believer,  and  the 
manner  in  which  the  grace  of  God,  which  bring- 
eth  salvation,  purifies  men, — constrains  them  to 
live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this  present 
world.  Pure  water  poured  on  us  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  represents  at 
once  our  native  pollution,  and  testifies  to  a 
method  of  removing  that  pollution,  in  which 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  concur.  In  the 
sacrament   of    the    Lord's    Supper,    again,    the 


328  SA  VING  KNO  WLEDGE. 

broken  bread  and  the  poured  out  wine  are  plainly 
fitted  to  represent  the  sacrifice  of  Christ_,  while 
the  eating  and  drinking  of  these  very  signifi- 
cantly indicates  the  emphatic  way  in  which  His 
sacrifice  is  appropriated^  the  closeness  of  the  union 
between  Him  and  the  believer,  and  his  entire  de- 
pendence on  Christ  for  the  sustenance  of  his 
spiritual  life.  In  the  words  of  one  of  the  great- 
est of  theologians — ^  Baptism  testifies  that  we 
are  washed^ — the  Supper,  that  we  are  redeemed. 
Ablution  is  figured  by  water, — satisfaction,  by 
blood.  Both  are  found  in  Christ,  who,  as  John 
says,  came  by  water  and  by  blood,  that  is,  to 
purify  and  to  redeem.  .  .  .  This  sublime  mys- 
tery was  illustriously  displayed  on  the  cross  of 
Christ,  when  water  and  blood  flowed  from  His 
sacred  side;  which,  for  this  reason,  Augustine 
justly  termed  the  fountain  of  our  sacraments.' 
(Calvin.) 

2.  Another  feature  of  the  ordinances  called 
Sacraments  is,  that  they  are  seals  or  confirmations 
of  the  blessings  which  they  represent.     They  can- 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  329 

not  make  the  blessings  more  certain  than  they 
would  otherwise  have  been ;  but  they  convey  the 
notion  of  their  certainty  more  impressively  to  men. 
Thus  we  are  told  of  circumcision^  that  it  was  to 
Abraham  a  seal  of  the  righteousness  which  he 
had  by  faith,  being  yet  uncircumcised.  In  other 
words,  it  was  to  Abraham  a  confirmation  of  the 
truth  that  in  consequence  of  his  faith  he  was  ac- 
counted righteous  in  the  sight  of  God.  A  man  of 
like  passions  with  ourselves,  the  mind  of  Abraham 
might  have  been  clouded  with  doubts_,  whether  the 
covenant  would  really  be  fulfilled  to  him — and  in 
particular,  whether  he  would  really  be  accepted 
through  his  faith  by  the  great  Judge  or  no.  Cir- 
cumcision was  God's  seal,  testifying  that  the  cove- 
nant would  stand  fast  and  that  he  would  be  ac- 
cepted. As  often  as  it  was  administered,  it  was 
equivalent  to  a  solemn  assurance  from  God  that 
all  would  be  made  good  to  him  ;  it  was  as  if  he 
had  heard  God^s  voice  declaring,  ^  The  mountains 
shall  depart,  and  the  hills  be  removed,  but  my 
kingdom  shall  not  depart  from  thee,  neither  shall 


330  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

the  covenant  of  my  peace  be  removed^  saith  the 
Lord  that  hath  mercy  on  thee/ 

The  Christian  ordinances_,  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper,  are  seals  in  a  similar  way.  They 
are  divine  attestations  to  the  provisions  of  the 
new  covenant,  divine  assurances  that  all  these 
provisions  shall  be  made  good.  But  let  us  mark 
to  whom  this  assurance  is  conveyed.  Not  to 
every  one  who  happens  to  receive  the  sacrament. 
The  fact  of  any  one  being  baptized,  or  receiving 
the  Lord's  Supper,  is  not  necessarily  to  him  a  seal 
or  assurance  of  salvation.  It  is  so  only  when  he 
is  a  believer.  Circumcision  would  have  assured 
nothing  to  Abraham  if  he  had  not  previously 
believed  the  promise  of  God.  It  was  not  an  as- 
surance to  Abraham  absolutely,  but  to  his  faith. 
The  seal  was  not  attached,  so  to  speak,  to  Abra- 
ham as  an  individual,  but  to  Abraham  as  a 
believer.  The  case  is  similar  with  the  New  Tes- 
tament sacraments.  They  are  not  seals  absolutely 
to  every  one  who  receives  them,  but  only  to  those 
who    have    faith.     Wherever   there    is    a   heart 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  331 

looking  to  Jesus  for  salvation,  looking  to  the 
'  water  and  the  blood  ^  at  once  for  cleansing  and 
for  purification,  they  assure  that  heart  of  the 
blessings  which  it  seeks.  They  are  God^s  seals  or 
attestations  to  the  faith  of  that  soul — material 
guarantees,  as  it  were,  of  the  blessings  of  the 
future,  pledges  of  the  payment  in  full  of  the  bless- 
ings that  have  been  promised  when  the  moment 
shall  have  come  at  which  the  bill  falls  due. 

It  is  of  the  greatest  possible  practical  moment 
to  bear  in  mind  that  the  sacraments  seal  nothinsr 

o 

but  condemnation  where  there  is  not  faith  in 
Christ,  and  in  the  benefits  of  redemption  through 
Him.  Wherever  this  fact  is  duly  considered, 
it  will  discourage  the  habit  of  resorting  to  the  sa- 
craments, without  regard  to  the  state  of  mind  of 
the  person  receiving  them.  Of  what  avail  can 
the  reception  of  the  sacraments  be  to  one  who 
has  not  opened  his  heart  to  Christ,  and  who  has 
no  real  faith  in  the  blessings  of  his  purchase  ? 
Can  it  be  imagined  that  the  mere  reception  of 
these  ordinances  compensates  for  the  careless  or 


332  SA  VI NG  KNO  W LEDGE. 

unbelieving  heart,  or  that  God  regards  the  mere 
bodily  service  as  equivalent  to  the  holy  trust  of 
the  regenerated  soul  ?  The  supposition  is  as  wild 
as  it  would  be  to  suppose  that  by  possessing  ever 
so  many  impressions  of  a  rich  man's  seal_,  one 
was  assured  of  inheriting  his  wealth.  The  seal  is 
nothing  apart  from  the  document  to  which  it  has 
reference.  Sacraments  assure  nothing,  apart  from 
the  covenant  of  grace,  and  faith  in  that  covenant. 
If  one  should  suppose  that  going  to  the  Lord's 
table  will  save  him,  though  he  has  no  real  faith 
in  Christ,  and  hardly  knows  what  redemption 
means;  if  a  parent,  receiving  baptism  for  his 
child,  fancies  that  it  will  bring  a  blessing,  although 
he,  as  representing  the  child,  knows  and  cares 
nothing  of  the  salvation  in  the  name  of  the 
Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost  of 
which  that  sacrament  speaks;  or  if  a  grown-up 
person,  who  had  been  baptized  in  infancy,  should 
persuade  himself  that  his  baptism  had  done  him 
some  mysterious  good,  though  meanwhile  he 
neglects  the  Saviour  to  whom  he  was  presented. 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  333 


and  tramples  on  the  covenant  in  which  the  salva- 
tion is  offered_, — such  persons  are  practising  a 
miserable  deception.  They  trust  to  a  seal  which 
can  seal  nothing  to  them,  because  they  destroy 
the  only  ground  or  surface  to  which  the  seal  can 
have  an  attachment.  It  is  as  if  a  company  of 
miners  should  suppose  that  because  they  grasp  a 
certain  rope  they  shall  be  drawn  to  the  surface, 
although  they  have  detached  the  end  of  the  rope 
from  the  machinery  by  which  alone  it  would  have 
accomplished  its  purpose. 

3.  There  is  a  third  property  of  the  ordinances 
which  we  call  sacraments, — they  are  channels  by 
which  the  blessings  which  they  represent  and  seal 
are  actually  conveyed  or  applied  to  believers. 

Besides  being  visible  representations  of  the 
blessings  of  redemption,  and  seals  or  pledges  of  the 
certainty  of  these  blessings  to  all  who  partake  of 
them  in  faith,  they  serve,  with  God^s  blessing, 
actually  to  communicate  them,  or  some  of  them,  to 
their  souls.  The  sacrament  of  the  Supper  furn- 
ishes  the   most    intelligible   illustration   of   this 


334  '^A  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

remark.  Not  only  does  that  sacrament  represent 
or  picture  forth  the  manner  in  which  sinners  are 
saved  through  the  sacrifice  of  Christ;  and  not 
only  does  it  confirm  the  promise  of  God  that  all 
who  take  Christ  as  their  Saviour  shall  come  to 
salvation;  it  is  moreover  one  of  the  channels 
through  which  Christ_,  and  certain  of  the  blessings 
of  His  redemption^  are  conveyed  to  such  partici- 
pants. By  feeding  on  Christ  in  this  sacrament, 
they  receive  Him  into  their  very  souls.  His  love 
warms  them,  His  peace  satisfies  them,  His  joy 
gladdens  them^  the  blessed  hope  of  glory  by  Him 
animates  and  strengthens  them.  They  enter  into 
closer  sympathy  with  Him,  they  learn  more  of 
Him  who  is  meek  and  lowly  in  heart,  and  get  rest 
to  their  souls.  They  share  the  spirit  by  which  He 
overcame  the  world,  and  triumphed  over  all  the 
powers  of  darkness.  Often,  in  this  sacrament, 
they  seem  to  sit  with  Christ  in  heavenly  places, 
and  to  enjoy  the  choicest  repasts  of  the  heavenly 
banquet.  Their  nature,  as  it  were,  is  steeped  in 
Christ's  Spirit;    the  old  man  shrivels  and  dies. 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  335 

the  new  nature  of  holiness  gets  fresh  encour- 
agement and  support.  Yet  let  it  not  be  sup- 
posed for  a  moment  that  in  producing  such 
effects,  the  sacrament  of  the  Supper  operates  like 
a  charm.  Whatever  effects  it  may  produce  are 
brought  through  the  action  of  the  spiritual  fa- 
culties of  the  soul,  and  especially  of  its  great 
organ  of  appropriation — Faith.  If  the  question 
were  asked,  What  makes  the  sacrament  of  the 
Supper  productive  of  higher  good  to  an  earnest 
Christian  than  a  powerful  sermon  on  the  death  of 
Christ  and  its  saving  fruits  ?  our  first  answer 
would  be,  that  this  is  due  to  the  Holy  Ghost  work- 
ing more  powerfully  through  the  sacrament  than 
through  the  sermon ;  but  if  it  should  be  further 
asked  whether  there  be  anything  in  the  nature  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  to  invite  the  more  powerful 
action  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  should  reply:  1st, 
that  God  may  deem  it  right  to  put  peculiar  honour 
on  an  ordinance  which  is  specially  designed  to 
show  the  glory  of  His  grace  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
to  nourish  the  souls  of  the  needy;   and  2nd,  that 


336  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

the  mental  preparation  undergone  by  a  careful 
Christian  before  going  to  the  Supper — his  self- 
examination^ — his  fervent  prayer, — the  solem- 
nized atmosphere,  so  to  speak_, — the  sympathy  of 
his  fellow-communicants^, — the  effort  to  stir  up 
his  soul  to  unusually  strong  acts  of  faith  and 
love  and  holy  desire_, — the  spirit  of  watchfulness 
against  worldly  and  distracting  thoughts^ — his 
more  intense  resolution  to  banish  the  world  from 
his  mind_,  and  occupy  himself  exclusively  with  his 
holy  fellowship — that  all  such  things  as  these — 
the  usual  concomitants  of  the  Supper, — may  make 
it  a  peculiarly  suitable  channel  for  the  communi- 
cation of  extraordinary  grace  and  blessing.  Add 
to  this,  that  it  is  of  the  very  nature  of  a  sacra- 
ment to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  senses,  and  thus 
make  the  bodily  organs  a  help  to  the  faculties  of 
the  soul.  When  truth  is  preached,  the  ear  alone 
of  the  bodily  organs  is  employed  to  convey  it  to 
the  mind ;  when  exhibited  in  a  sacrament,  the 
eye,  which  has  far  more  command  over  the  mind 
than  the  ear,  is  also  called  into  operation.      Sup- 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  337 

pose,  however,  that  all  the  accompaniments  of  a 
communion  now  referred  to  are  neglected  by  a 
believer ;  in  such  a  case,  believer  though  he  be, 
it  is  certain  that  the  ordinance  will  convey  to  him 
but  a  scanty  measure  of  grace.  Even  the  Lord^s 
Supper  may  be  but  as  an  empty  well ;  while  in 
proportion  to  the  pains  taken  to  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  the  service  and  enjoy  the  w^orking  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  will  be  the  degree  of  enjoyment  and 
of  benefit  which  it  brings.  He  who  rushes  on 
this  holy  ground  without  taking  the  shoes  from 
his  feet — without  any  effort  to  be  impressed  by 
the  sacred  Presence,  can  only  leave  that  Presence 
as  he  came  into  it;  the  sacrament  will  not  be  to 
him,  as  Bethel  was  to  Jacob,  the  house  of  God  or 
the  gate  of  heaven. 

In  a  word,  if  a  sacrament  is  more  efficacious 
of  spiritual  good  than  a  sermon,  it  is  not  because 
a  different  kind  of  influence  is  at  work,  but  the 
same  influence  in  a  higher  degree.  In  both  cases, 
whatever  saving  good  takes  place  is  due  to  the 
action  of  God's  Spirit  on  the  faculties  of  the  soul. 


338  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

How  is  the  preaching  of  the  word  ever  effectual  ? 
Not  merely  because  the  arguments  are  convincing, 
the  illustrations  clear,  and  the  appeals  forcible  and 
appropriate;  but  because  the  Spirit  opens  the 
hearts  of  hearers,  causes  them  to  ponder,  to  feel, 
to  tremble;  and  makes  the  truths  which  they 
have  heard  to  live  and  abide  in  them  for  ever. 
And  why  are  sacraments  ever  effectual  ?  Not 
merely  because  in  their  own  nature  they  are  fitted 
to  gender  a  solemn  state  of  heart,  and  to  direct 
the  mind  powerfully  to  the  great  doctrines  of  the 
cross;  but  because  the  Holy  Spirit  prepares  and 
opens  hearts  to  appreciate  and  feel  the  truths 
which  they  exhibit,  and  thus  makes  them  chan- 
nels of  saving  grace  to  the  soul. 

We  are  well  aware  of  the  pious  horror  which 
this  view  of  the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments  would 
raise  in  certain  minds.  Thosewho  elevate  the  sacra- 
ments far  above  all  other  ordinances  of  the  Gospel; 
who  represent  them  as  the  most  wonderful,  the 
most  mysterious,  the  most  certain  depositories  of 
saving  grace ;  who  think  that  for  any  one  to  par- 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  339 

take  of  a  sacrament  is  equivalent  to  drinking  the 
elixir  of  immortality  or  bathing  in  the  River  of 
Life;  who  maintain  that  if  one  do  but  receive 
the  sacraments  devoutly,  and  is  but  v^rapt  in 
wonder  at  the  unapproachable  privilege  which  is 
given  him  through  God's  priest,  no  other  exercise 
of  mind  is  needed  for  realizing  the  unspeakable 
treasure — all  such  persons  will  recoil  from  the 
view  we  have  presented  as  a  sacrilegious  robbery, 
as  an  impious  stripping  the  most  holy  mysteries 
of  our  religion  of  the  surpassing  glory  with  which 
God  has  invested  them.  But  no  such  represent- 
ation can  invalidate  the  substantial  soundness 
of  the  view  we  hav€  presented.  And  if  it 
should  be  proposed  to  test  the  question  by  results, 
we  should  not  dread  the  decision.  Against  the 
excited  wonder  and  ecstasy  of  Sacramentarians, 
we  would  confidently  place  the  experience  of 
intelligent  and  well-exercised  Protestants.  In  the 
feelings  of  the  former  we  believe  there  is  really 
nothing  to  compare  with  the  experience  of  the 
latter — the  sense  they  have  at  the  Lord's  Supper  of 


340  SAVING  KNOWLEDGE. 

the  reality  and  sufficiency  of  redemption_,  of  the 
grace  of  the  Son,  the  love  of  the  Father,  and  the 
quickening  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  their  lessed 
repose  of  soul  in  the  thought  of  a  completed  and 
appropriated  redemption;  their  tranquil  composure 
and  satisfaction  of  heart,  in  the  belief  that  all  that 
concerns  them  is  in  the  hands  of  a  covenant  God  ; 
the  brotherly  and  loving  spirit  which  flows  out  to 
their  brethren  of  mankind;  the  happy,  confiding 
feeling  with  which,  in  the  view  of  the  past,  they 
can  contemplate  the  future — ^  Surely  goodness 
and  mercy  shall  follow  me  all  the  days  of  my 
life  ;  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  for 
ever/ 

4.  We  add  another  feature  of  the  Christian 
sacraments — they  are  badges  of  Christian  dis- 
cipleship.  He  who  receives  them  puts  on,  as  it 
were,  the  liverv  of  the  cross.  He  makes  a  de- 
claration before  the  world  like  Joshua's,  ^  As  for 
me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord/  And 
this  is  not  true  merely  in  a  general  sense.  He 
must  be  regarded  moreover  as  making  a  special 


THE  SACRAMENTS.  341 

profession  corresponding  to  the  character  of  the 
sacrament  itself.  Has  he  been  baptized?  Not 
only  in  the  general  does  he  profess  himself  to  be 
Christ's,  bat  more  especially  he  testifies  that  he 
believes  his  nature  to  be  polluted  and  that  that 
nature  requires  to  be  changed.  Has  he  been 
baptized  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost  ?  Not  only  does  he  signify  his  belief 
in  the  Trinity,  but  he  professes  to  take  each  of 
the  three  persons  in  the  capacity  or  office  spe- 
cially assigned  to  him  :  the  Father  as  his  God 
and  Portion,  his  Judge  and  Ruler ;  the  Son  as  his 
Redeemer,  his  Guide,  his  Teacher;  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  his  Quickener,  his  Comforter,  his  Sanc- 
tifier.  Has  he  gone  to  the  Holy  Supper  ?  Not 
only  has  he  signified  his  belief  in  Christ  and  His 
redemption,  but  he  has  professed  to  appropriate 
Christ  spiritually,  and  from  His  broken  body  and 
shed  blood  to  draw,  by  faith,  the  blessings  of  re- 
conciliation. He  has  decfared  his  conviction, 
that  if  one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead;  and 
that  He  died  that  thev  that  live  should  not  live 


342  SA  VING  KNO  W LEDGE. 

unto  themselves_,  but  unto  Him  that  died  for  them 
and  that  rose  again. 

Alas^  what  an  amount  of  miserable  hypocrisy 
is  often  connected  with  these  glorious  sacraments  ! 
How  marvellously  man  often  contrives  to  reverse 
the  tendency  of  Divine  institutions_,   to   pervert 
them  to  the   very   opposite  purpose  to  that  for 
which   they  were    graciously    designed !      These 
holy  ordinances,,  designed  among  other  things  as 
badges   of  manly  profession^  of  free,  frank,  fear- 
less appropriation  of  Christ,  how  miserably  they 
are  often  perverted   to   the  purpose  of  a  hollow 
acknowledgment,  used  like  the  kiss  of  Judas,  not 
to  honour  but  betray  the  Son  of  Man  !     Happily 
we  have  outlived   the  time  when  these  hallowed 
institutions  were  made  by  law  the  porch  to  every 
civil  office  and  employment,  and  a  wholesale  pro- 
fanation of  them    (as   it  often  turned  out)    was 
carried  on  by  the  highest  authorities  of  the  land. 
But  what  has  ceased  to  be  demanded  by  public 
law  is  in  some  circles  still  required  by  the  force  of 
social  custom.     In  nothing  is  the  want  of  deep 


THE  SACRAMENTS'.  343 


personal  sincerity  so  often  shown  as  in  the  spirit 
in  which  men  receive  the  Christian  sacraments. 
And  in  regard  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  it  is  quite 
marvellous  how  that  which  was  designed  as  a  bond 
of  union  among  all  Christians  is   perverted  to  a 
badge  of  separation  !     The   communion   of  the 
Lord's  body  and  blood  often  becomes  the  crown- 
ing badge  of  sectarianism,  in  place  of  the  holy  sym- 
bol of  the  common  faith  and  hope  of  Christians. 
Happily  there  are  individual  Christians  who  break 
through    these    miserable    restraints    of    human 
origin,  and  delight  to  communicate  with  all  of 
every  name  that  love  the  Lord  and  look  for  His 
appearing.    May  God  hasten  the  time  when  on  a 
wider  scale  this  most  Christian  spirit  shall  come 
into  operation ;  and  when,  in  the  various  Chris- 
tian denominations,  the  one  bread  and  the  one 
cup  which  were  designed  to  show  the  world  the 
unity  of  the  Christian  Church,  shall  be  restored 
to  the  glorious  use  for  which  they  were  designed  ! 
Morning  star   of  the  millennial   day,  arise  and 
shine !     For  surely  the  Bridegroom's  chariot  will 


344  -^A  yiNG  KNO  W LEDGE, 

not  be  far  oflf^  when  His  people,  over  the  memo- 
rials of  His  death,  whatever  their  differences  may- 
have  been  before,  shall  be  unable  to  know  any- 
feeling  but  love.  Is  it  right  that  the  graves  of 
our  children  should  have  more  power  to  bring 
hearts  together  than  the  feast  that  comme- 
morates the  death  of  our  Lord  ?  The  poet  says 
touchingly, 

'  For  when  we  came  where  hes  the  child 
We  lost  in  other  years, 
There  above  the  little  grave, 
O  there  above  the  little  grave, 
We  kiss'd  again  with  tears. 

Would  that  the  Holy  Supper  were  such  a  scene : 
— a  place  where  Ephraim  who  has  so  long  en- 
vied Judah,  and  Judah  who  has  so  long  vexed 
Ephraim,  would  meet  to  bury  their  quarrels  and 
^kiss  again  with  tears'  1 


THE    END. 


JOHN   CHILDS   AND   SON,    PRINTERS. 


Princeton  Theolog 


cal  Semmary-Speer  Ul 


1    1012  01091   7492 


Date  Due 

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